By Angus Roxburgh BBC News Online, Paris

Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front, is feeling good - better, perhaps, than at any time since he shocked Europe by coming second in the presidential election last May.

He told me this week he is in fine fettle, planning to lead his party "until the death", and - with a large dollop of Schadenfreude - he is very much enjoying what he calls "the demise" of the rival far-right party, the Mouvement National Republicain, led by his one-time protege, Bruno Megret.

So long as I have the strength and the confidence of the party, I will continue my personal fight

Mr Megret set up his breakaway MNR four years ago, splitting the far-right vote.

In the presidential elections, though, he won only 2.3%, and this week he suffered another blow, when his wife, Catherine, the mayor of the southern town of Vitrolles, was roundly defeated by a socialist candidate.

The party's only other mayor had already defected back to the National Front.

Alternative

Mr Le Pen can scarcely conceal his glee. "I am singing De Profundis. The MNR is dead, and a stone has been erected over its grave in Vitrolles."

Certainly, the collapse of Mr Megret's party might benefit the National Front, at a time when it risks losing the support of voters who regard France's new centre-right government as a reasonable alternative.

Le Pen's daughter, Marine, is being groomed as his successor

Mr Le Pen, however, dismisses the notion that the moderate right, with its harsher stand on crime and immigration, is effectively carrying out National Front's policies.

"We know well that even if the government seems to be doing what we advocate, it is only pretending" he says.

"Chirac's failure is assured."

Successor

Although most observers feel he has peaked, Mr Le Pen, at 74, shows no sign of gracefully easing himself out of politics.

He dismisses rumours of a leadership struggle, saying that no one in the party disputes his position.

She has a remarkable personality, but she is not a candidate to succeed her father

"So long as I have the strength and the confidence of the party, I will continue my personal fight," he said.

That means he expects to be re-elected leader at the party's next Congress in the spring of next year and hopes to lead it in regional and European elections in 2004 - and even in the next presidential elections in 2007.

"Until the death," he chuckled, when I asked how long he could go on.

The party knows it will face a crisis when Mr Le Pen goes.

His daughter, Marine, is being groomed as his successor, but even Mr Le Pen is realistic about her prospects.

"At 34," he says, "she has a remarkable personality, but she is not a candidate to succeed her father."

The job will probably go to his deputy, Bruno Gollnisch.

He is a genial man, but lacks the fire and charisma of Mr Le Pen.

As a result, the National Front must be facing up to the fact that, as the creation of Mr Le Pen, it may have reached its twilight years.

Future

The issues that attract voters to the far right remain: Mr Le Pen stresses that immigration threatens to "submerge" European countries.

World events - a war in Iraq, for example - could cause further waves of immigration, and that in turn could feed into increased support for parties such as the National Front.

The government's failure to deal with crime, or further moves towards European integration, would also play into the far-right's hands.

But the fact remains: all across Europe, the only far-right parties that have prospered are those with strong, charismatic leaders.

And after Mr Le Pen, the National Front will be struggling to find one.