Singing the French national anthem and smiling broadly after Sunday's first-round election launched her into a May 7 runoff with centrist Emmanuel Macron, Le Pen said her National Front party will represent "the great alternative" for French people frustrated with the status quo. The final days of the campaign were upended by an attack claimed by the Islamic State group that killed a police officer on Paris' Champs-Elysees, feeding into another of LePen's central themes. The anti-establishment Le Pen has a soft touch that appeals to voters once too timid to vote for the extreme right — but her passion for cats can't hide a steely resolve and a tongue that can be as cutting as her father's. First a lawyer, then a politician, Le Pen has served as a European lawmaker since 2004 and since 2010 as a regional councilor for the northern region of France, a hardscrabble land where she feels at home. Old friends from her days studying law in Paris, members of a radical student group known for violence and anti-Semitism, hold crucial roles in her inner circle — and are at the center of an alleged party financing scheme.