AFTER a lifetime on the fringes of French politics, and the despised fringes at that, Jean-Marie Le Pen now finds himself very much centre stage. And the spotlight will be a godsend for a man who has always courted controversy.

While his most infamous pronouncement may have been describing the Holocaust as a "detail" in history in the 1980s, during this year's campaign he has been unafraid to link rising crime, and fear of crime, to immigration.

And this emphasis on law and order may have been key to lifting Le Pen from being the eternal Third Man of French politics to shaking the very foundations of the Republic in his fourth presidential poll.

The 73-year-old is a political survivor, becoming the youngest deputy in France at the age of 27. And even then he had a reputation as a bully.

As president of a group of right-wing law students, he was notorious for brawling in Paris, and at one political meeting he mounted a platform to slap an opponent. The beating he received in return resulted in him lose the sight of an eye, although he has long since eschewed the eye-patch in favour of a glass replacement.

Le Pen served in the Foreign Legion in Indochina, but it was his exploits with the Parachute Division in Algeria which saw him accused of torturing Arab prisoners. Although he acknowledged in a magazine article that he participated in "torture because it was necessary", he took legal action against allegations that he was a torturer.

He set up the National Front in France in 1972, but managed less than one per cent of the vote in the 1974 presidential election. But his anti-Marxism at a time when the Communists were a powerful force, and the effects of economic recession, combined with unease at the level of immigration, bolstered his popular support.

But his rise to prominence did not curb his aggressive tendencies. Five years ago he punched a socialist rival, almost costing him his seat in the European Parliament.

His personal life has been no less colourful than his political career. Le Pen lives in a mansion in the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud, looked after by a team of servants.

Most of his fortune was inherited from an eccentric alcoholic millionaire, Hubert Lambert, who died of liver failure at the age of 42, having been in and out of psychiatric hospitals. Nor has this been his only benefaction - Yvonne Perrot was surprised to discover that her brother left his entire estate to Le Pen, and five years ago persuaded a court to overturn the will.

Le Pen's wife of 25 years, Pierrette, ran off with a journalist in the mid-1980s, and when she complained that she was short of money, the National Front leader said she could work as a maid.

But Pierrette had the last word, dressing up as a maid in a series of revealing poses in Playboy magazine. A far cry from being the next First Lady of France.