Or alternately it might just be that the current set of elections didn't favor them for a bit given that the deep-seated roots of xenophobia and tolerance of outright fascist policies in France doesn't disappear even if the party goes into a bit of a hiding phase. I'm also not sure how a victory of the Right over the Far Right suddenly becomes a sign of progressive triumph in Europe when the regular GOP pounding the kapok out of the Tea Party in the United States isn't treated this way at all. If John Boehner defeating a Tea Party challenger is not a sign of healthy politics on one side of the Atlantic, how did this suddenly change because it's France, the land that originated the modern ideas of pyramids of skulls as the last resort when all else fails in elections, instead of the United States?