Not Your Father's Anti-Immigrant Right

But Farid Smahi is not a comedian, nor is he blind, although he does confound a stereotype: The son of Algerian parents and a longtime victim of anti-immigrant prejudice, Smahi is a candidate in France's forthcoming legislative election — for the anti-immigrant National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen.

"I don't think anyone should be surprised to see a large portion of France's banlieue vote going to Le Pen," says a woman giving her name only as Habiba. Many of the younger, newly registered voters in the housing projects around her Toulouse home have told her they'll do just that. Though most people in France view Le Pen as the very embodiment of overt racism, both Habiba and Smahi say minority voters will overlook his reputation in order to keep out the politician most hated by banlieue youths: Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose heavy-handed approach and provocative language they see as having fueled the violence in 2005.