Marine Le Pen loves cats and therefore her heart is in the right place

NEWS AND COMMENT: I don't think that you can love cats and be a bad person. If you love cats, you probably love most if not all animals and if you love animals your heart must be in the right place. And judging by the photographs of Marine Le Pen on her Instagram website, she adores cats and loves animals. 

Marine Le Pen with Bengal cats. Photo: Instagram.

There are a lot of photographs of her with farm animals for instance and smiling while holding a dog. But her heart is with cats and it is in the news today that she has a diploma in cat breeding. I must admit that I do not like that aspect of her character.  Sorry. But I still like her and would support her.

True cat lovers would not breed cats but I will forgive her. Another little unsettling aspect, according to a tweet by a man called Gideon Rachman who I've not heard of, states that Le Pen has said that one of the attractions in studying the breeding of cats is the "perfection of the race" and their "genetic characteristics" as reported by Le Monde newspaper.

Marine Le Pen loving being with a cat. Photo: Instagram.

She is talking about cat breeding obviously which is very much about genetics. In addition, it is in truth about the perfection of the race by which she means perfecting the appearance of the cats that she breeds in order to meet the demands of the breed standard as specified by the cat associations. The word 'race' in this instance means a certain cat breed.

The trouble is that critics of Le Pen will say that she is showing her far right tendencies in those statements. However, when you see a photograph of her with a cat you see a lot of softness. It seems to me that she may have had far right tendencies but she has softened her position and is now more central on the political spectrum.

The Times states that she may be the leader of a movement that belongs to France's historical "brutal far right" but she has, deep down, a sensitive soul. And I think that is absolutely correct. Although I don't think she is far right any more if she ever was. I'm not sure.

But Marine Le Pen's website which in English is titled Notebook of Hopes portrays the National front leader as a lover of kittens and animals in general.

RELATED: Picture of Marine Le Pen and her Somali cat.

Sceptics might think this is a cynical attempt to reposition her image as perceived by the voters of France as she is in competition with Macron to become France's president.

Ironically, Marine Le Pen's father loves Doberman dogs. Being a dog lover is clearly more in line with a political party of far-right tendencies.

The pictures of her with cats are being talked about as a makeover for this presidential challenger.

The Guardian newspaper reports that Le Pen has stated, "I couldn't live without cats". They say that she is in a long campaign to detoxify the far right, anti-immigration party founded by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972. 

In a television interview she said that she had a difficult childhood but made it clear that she loves cats. And interestingly, the journalist said that nobody hates cat lovers. It's a good point. It is certainly hard to hate someone who loves cats and animals in general.

I think she is probably much less far right than people think she is but she has a legacy to deal with thanks to her father. Loving cat certainly helps to brush up her image.