For 50 years the name Le Pen has haunted French politics. Now Marine Le Pen has a shot at the French presidency.

French presidential elections take place in two rounds, with the two leading candidates from the first progressing into a head-to-head. This year's first poll took place yesterday. And two candidates came out far ahead. In first place came the current president, the centrist Jean-Emmanuel Macron, with just under 28% of the vote. Close behind him, with 23%, was Marine Le Pen.

France now faces a choice between these two for the second time in five years. In 2017, Macron beat Le Pen with 66% of the vote to her 34%. This year he looked on course for another resounding victory, but in recent weeks the polls narrowed. The rivals are almost neck and neck.

Le Pen and her National Rally (NR) party advocate a "French first" policy that many see as racist. The party's platform includes strictly limiting immigration, banning headscarves in public, preventing non-citizens from accessing welfare and allowing employers to discriminate based on nationality.

To enact these changes, Le Pen would organise a referendum to remove parts of the French constitutionA document that sets out the fundamental rules according to which a country is governed, which are usually difficult to change. guaranteeing the right to equality before the law.

Policies like this have always made the RN divisive. This year, Le Pen's close ties to Vladimir Putin have added alarm.

Putin endorsed her during the 2017 election. She has accepted loans from banks associated with Russia.

Despite this controversy, Le Pen has softened her party's image. She has played up her love of cats and promised a "calmer" politics.

Analysts say improved poll numbers show that Le Pen has been successful in detoxifying the image of the RN - a goal she has held since she succeeded her father Jean-Marie as party leader in 2011.

The older Le Pen was open about his sympathies with fascism. He downplayed the seriousness of the HolocaustThe murder of six million Jewish people in Europe by Nazi Germany. Members of other minority groups were also killed.  and defended France's collaborationWorking together. with Nazi Germany during World War Two.

Marine expelled Jean-Paul from the party in 2015. Yet many commentators believe that the break from what they call "classical fascism" is only skin-deep.

Others disagree. Jean-Yves Camus, an expert on the far right, points out that she is seeking to gain power through democracy rather than force. "Simply put, the RN is not a Fascist party," he says.

Yes: Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. She may not have a toothbrush moustache, but Marine Le Pen's vision for a society in which race and nationality determine your fate is one that Hitler and Mussolini would welcome.

No: Marine Le Pen is a legitimate democratic politician. However appalling you might find her views, they should be debated, not dismissed by critics using alarmist labels.

Or... Let's not get bogged down in debates about terminology. A politics of discrimination based on nationality, religion and race should be unwelcome under any guise.