Marine Le Pen sets sights on territory of traditional right

Cote d'Azur is among areas where French far-right leader seeks to make inroads in regional elections this month

At 4am on weekdays, Isabelle often thought about the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen. An airport worker in her 50s, she had a pre-dawn commute along the Cote d'Azur and spent it worrying that her pension wouldn't be enough, that crime was increasing. She began to believe the far right's promise to give national priority" to French people over non-nationals in jobs, housing and welfare, driven by her feeling that immigrants" seemed to be doing better than her.

Emmanuel Macron cares more about foreign policy than French people's struggles, but Le Pen, a lawyer and mother of three, understands French workers," she said. For decades, Isabelle voted for the mainstream right, but not in the forthcoming regional elections. I've become one of those women who once voted Nicolas Sarkozy and now votes Marine Le Pen," she shrugged.