By Caroline Wyatt BBC correspondent in Paris

The French go to the polls on Sunday to vote in the first round of regional elections.

Marine Le Pen: new public face of the French far right

The candidates may be local, but the results will be seen as a mid-term test of public opinion on the national government - the first such test since Jacques Chirac was voted president in 2002.

Seventy per cent of voters say they may use this as a chance to show their disillusionment with the government - yet at the same time, almost half warn they may not bother to vote at all.

There are fears in France that voter apathy could help the far right, which has at least 16% support in opinion polls, and boost a new, younger Le Pen candidacy in France's biggest region, Ile de France - the run-down suburbs which surround Paris.

Marine Le Pen stands out as a glamorous blonde figure amid the drab greys of a rainy Ile de France marketplace.

Mrs Le Pen, daughter of the more famous Jean-Marie, is out on the campaign trail.

Barred

She is the new public face of the far right in France, and can work a crowd with ease, a joke or clever retort at the ready.

While her father is still leading his party, the National Front, at the age of 75, he is not actually standing - his candidacy was barred on a legal technicality.

She says the same thing as her father but in a softer, more politically correct way. She is more respectable Nonna Mayer Political analyst

In contrast, Marine is a 30-something mother of two, who hopes she has given the far right a new appeal to younger voters, especially to women.

"The National Front's image has always been caricatured as macho, and wanting to send women back to the kitchen, which is ridiculous," she tells me.

"The fact that one of the National Front's bosses is a young, working woman helps to change that image.

"And I think the party's racist image is also collapsing, because people realise our programme is focused on nationality, not on race on religion."

Handing out Marine's leaflets on Ile de France are the foot-soldiers of the far right, mainly men in their 50s - but a few women too, like Marie-Noelle Bousselaire.

She says that the National Front's manifesto - promising to end political corruption and give jobs to the French, rather than immigrants - is the only hope for France.

Le Pen says the headscarf debate will produce votes for his party

The major parties are all entangled in seemingly endless corruption trials, with one of Mr Chirac's closest lieutenants, Alain Juppe, recently found guilty of illegal party funding.

Madame Bousselaire feels they are too busy enriching themselves to focus on the everyday problems she and her family face.

"Here in the suburbs of Paris, the biggest problem is immigration," she complains.

"Just look at the marketplace we've just been campaigning in - there is a majority of foreigners there.

"OK, so some were working today but many don't work at all, and live at the expense of the French citizens like ourselves, who do work and pay taxes."

On the same day, one suburb in Ile de France is holding a festival of Berber culture.

Under pressure

The children and grandchildren of France's mainly north African immigrants who attend say they are hoping the far right won't win in any of the country's 22 regions.

They believe they suffer enough discrimination already when applying for jobs or housing - even though almost all are French by birth.

Student Samira Toukal says she is keen to vote against the National Front but not sure if any of the other parties really represent her.

I would be ashamed if I saw Le Pen win a great score this time Jean-Paul Huchon Socialist candidate

"We are still seen as immigrants and we are still being asked what we are ready to do to help integration," she tells me.

"I was born here but I sometimes feel I have to do twice as much to prove that I am French."

Samira chooses not to cover her head, but knows that the National Front are determined to exploit the issue of the Moslem headscarf which is being banned in French schools from September.

Jean-Marie le Pen terms it "one veil, one vote" for his party - as many now fear that Islamic fundamentalism is being nurtured on French soil.

Nonna Mayer, a political analyst who specialises in the extreme right at the CNRS Centre for Political Science in Paris, warns this election could show even stronger support for the Le Pens.

"The economy is doing badly, unemployment is rising and the Le Pens have focussed on the problem of social insecurity, which is good for them," she says.

She also thinks Marine Le Pen could be an important asset for the party.

"Marine is trying to promote a new generation," she explains.

Major parties are entangled in a series of corruption scandals

"She says the same thing as her father but in a softer, more politically correct way. She is more respectable."

Amid the run-down housing estates of Ile de France, a battered Socialist campaign bus flies the familiar red flag.

Their candidate Jean-Paul Huchon is currently in power here, and hopes to stay.

He says it is crucial that the left does better now than it did in the presidential elections two years ago, when Jean-Marie Le Pen beat the Socialists into a humiliating third place.

"To see the extreme right, the racist people, making a good score would be terrible," he admits.

"I would be ashamed if I saw Le Pen win a great score this time."

Focus

The centre-right UMP candidate on Ile de France, Jean-Francois Cope, simply can't afford to do badly - his other job is as spokesman to the French prime minister.

Opinion polls show it is his party that could suffer the most if voters use this as a chance to protest against the increasingly unpopular national government.

"It is very important that we get voters to the polls, because it is a way for us to show the opposition that we are determined to continue with our policy," he insists.

The fear in France is that the fewer who bother to vote, the better the results for the far right.