with all the wannabe teenage attitude he could muster He hesitated a fraction of second before adding: "Only joking." They imbibe this kind of black humour with their mother's milk in Libercourt, a town in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, the gritty deindustrialised region of northern France In an area struck by the double whammy of high unemployment and an unusually high early death rate there is little to laugh about Libercourt is part of a constituency that has become the stage for a monumental battle between France's far right and far left. It is here that the far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon has chosen to stand provoking what the press has nicknamed "Le Duel" with the Front National president Marine Le Pen In the first round of the presidential election in April he scored lower than the polls predicted with 11.1% of the national vote he could have chosen to seek election as an MP to the Assemblée Nationale in one of the areas where his party scored highly in the first round of the presidential election Instead he has chosen to risk a direct confrontation with the woman he has described as a "beast spitting hatred" a "dark presence" and "half-demented" (which he insisted wasn't such an insult as it "at least left the other half") The Nord-Pas-de-Calais has been hard hit over many decades by the closure of its mines and other industries and the loss of up to 200,000 jobs whose "social programme" has played well with the out-of-work and disaffected in the region picked up her best scores here during the first round of the election the opinion polls are suggesting Mélenchon might just pull it off this time An Ifop survey found Mélenchon trailing Le Pen in the first round of the general vote by 29% to 34% but suggested that by picking up those who voted for the Parti Socialiste candidate in the second round he would win with a comfortable majority Mélenchon was welcomed like a conquering hero last Thursday toot their car horns and invite him in for coffee even dragging a wheelchair up the grassy mound Locals helpfully told journalists that it was not a hill but the waste heap from the local mine down which many of their fathers and grandfathers had toiled the waves of immigrants – from Poland in the 1920s and 1930s from Italy in the postwar period and from Morocco and Algeria in the 1950s and 1960s – who came to work in the mines 23% of Libercourt's inhabitants are unemployed; in nearby Hénin-Beaumont both well above the national average of 9.7% Regional health officials say the level of premature death in the population is 65% higher than the national average and the number of cancers linked to alcohol and smoking is 81% higher The local Parti Socialiste of recently elected president François Hollande the natural recourse for the people of Libercourt has been mired in allegations of corruption over misuse of public funds leaving it discredited and giving Mélenchon and his Front de Gauche party As Mélenchon continued his walkabout in Libercourt nudged his way to the front of the surrounding crowd to sum up the problem and the anger They said to us if you want to integrate you have to get educated and work So we got educated; we have some of the most qualified people you will meet around here Ten years ago people were arguing about immigration and are still arguing My parents have been in France for 25 years red tie and black jacket with a red carnation in the breast pocket "Shouldn't people feel at home wherever they are?" he asked rhetorically as the crowd pressed in on him "How many generations are we going to piss off with this question of immigration and where you were born?" are typical of the ethnic mix in Libercourt Salim's family is from Algeria and Karima's from Poland and Algeria three generations in France and still feel a bit like outsiders Even here with such a large number of people with immigrant backgrounds the Front National scored well comes from a mining family: "Our parents worked in the mines but especially the youngsters who have no hope." Outside the railway station in Hénin-Beaumont election posters featuring Le Pen's photograph have been defaced by Hitleresque toothbrush moustaches He launches into a discourse which concludes that Romanians north Africans and "other foreigners" are milking the system and are to blame for the woes of the local population the "Français de souche" (pure French) "Marine Le Pen is the only one who talks honestly about this problem," he said Aïssa Khélifa and his neighbours say they will vote Mélenchon but many confess they do not have much faith in politicians of any colour "I've lived here all of my life and as far as I know no politician has come to Libercourt before," he says "Even the local councillors don't come here but I think Jean-Luc Mélenchon is our best hope." 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