In March 1984, a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post tracked down Pierre Poujade, the stationery salesman who had led a political revolt of French shopkeepers three decades earlier. Poujade's movement, the Union de Défense Commerçants et Artisans (Union for the Defense of Tradesmen and Artisans, UDCA), did not survive beyond a single parliamentary term in the French National Assembly and serves as a classic example of a “flash” party. But the ideology of Poujadism – the defense of small business interests and traditional values against the forces of modernization – appeared to be making a comeback in the form of Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National (National Front, FN). Le Pen had first entered parliament as a twenty-eight-year-old deputy of the UDCA, and although he was now well into his sixth decade, Poujade still spoke of him as a protégé. “A handsome kid with a fine gift of gab” was his estimation of the FN's leader. Le Pen was attracting national attention after his party, with the cooperation of two mainstream conservative parties, won several council seats in the town of Dreux. This led to a series of television appearances and increased visibility, and by the time of the interview with Poujade the FN was polling between 10% and 15% for the upcoming elections to the European Parliament.