Now you're intentionally obtuse. First, Valls was mayor from 2001, that's just a year before le Pen got into the second round against Chirac, and FN had successes well before that. Second, what really matters is not what he did as a relatively unknown local politician, but what he did with full approval of the PS leadership, his PM and his President once he became interior minister. And years before Valls, his supposed role model Sarko was trying to out-FN the FN, too. But you know that full well.

Marine Le Pen hadn't even been elevated to leader

What does that have to do with anything? You keep pretending that we have had a (1) single-issue (2) French Presidential election and that (3) the FN candidate started with a clean slate and (4) without any party membership. In truth, we had an EP election, with several issues, FN had a party list loaded with the same old faces and plans alliances with forces in other countries sharing its "values" in much more than sovereignist opposition to the Euro. I could go on, but if you are in denial about the views of ET's resident FN supporter (fredouil) then you will remain in denial about it all.

As for social democratic types this pretty much fits the bills for the lot of you.

LOL! Shifty, aren't you? First it was "French-based social-democratic types" whom you surmise to be hypocritical about Valls, now that you can't locate a single one of those, everyone is a social democratic type? I suspect only a handful of us voted for S&D members, so your definition of "social democratic type" must be rather wide. In fact I wonder if you now classify those still faithful to the FDG as "social democratic types".

the KPD

Let's talk about the PCF, which you are bolting for the fascists. What happened to them that they lost credibility with you? How could it have happened? Come to think of it, how capitalist can China's Communist Party become before you see them in a worse light than the PCF now?

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}