Fresh-Faced Star of France’s Far Right Is Candidate of Steel

She’s the youngest French lawmaker and in an election this weekend could become the youngest president of a powerful region.

Vice-President of the French far-right Front National (FN) party and candidate for the regional elections in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur (PACA) region, Marion Marechal Le Pen listens to journalists questions, during a televised and radio broadcast programm in Marseille, southern France, on Dec. 8, 2015. Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images

PARIS—She’s the youngest French lawmaker and in an election this weekend could become the youngest president of a powerful region.

Marion Marechal-Le Pen, 26, is the fresh-faced rising star of the far-right National Front, using a soft touch to deliver hard messages on migrants and Muslims that outdo her tough-talking aunt, party leader Marine Le Pen.

The stakes in Sunday’s vote for leadership councils in 13 French regions are high. If the two Le Pens win their regions, the anti-immigration National Front will shatter France’s current political landscape—and Marine Le Pen will boost her chances in France’s 2017 presidential campaign.

French far-right National Front (FN) President and candidate in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Picardie region for the second round of the regional elections Marine Le Pen greets French National Front (FN) far-right party candidate in Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region (PACA) Marion Marechal-Le Pen (R) during a campaign rally in Paris on Dec. 10, 2015. Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images