ONE of France's main national newspapers has described Nicola Sturgeon as the "Queen of Scots" in a pre-election profile of the SNP leader.

Paris-based Le Monde spoke to friends of the First Minister, including former deputy SNP leader Angus Robertson and councillor Marie Burns for the 3200 word portrait, charting how Sturgeon became involved in political activism as a schoolgirl in Irvine, Ayrshire, to her rise as First Minister.

The article ran under the headline "From early activism to the dream of independence, Nicola Sturgeon, Queen of Scots" and speculated that she may be the leader to take Scotland to independence.

"It must be said that at 50 years, and nearly 35 of pro-independence activism, Nicola – everyone calls her by her first name in Scotland – is a formidable political animal.

"Tough, very experienced and, now, ultra-popular. Perhaps the first leader of the country to be able to realise the dream which the Scottish nationalists nourish for decades: the end of the 'submission' to the parliamentarians of Westminster and especially to the Tories, the English conservatives, party hated and ultimate foil," it said.

The feature, carried in the paper at the end of last week, said that if if the SNP win a majority of Holyrood seats at Thursday's election, the First Minister will demand a new independence referendum and pointed out that "since last summer, almost all the polls give the winning yes".

READ MORE: Top EU diplomat at centre of row with Boris Johnson to visit Scotland 'very soon'

As part of her research, Le Monde's UK and Ireland correspondent Cecile Ducourtrieux visited Irvine where she spoke to Sturgeon's friend Marie Burns and BBC journalist Shelley Joffre, who went to the same school – Greenwood Academy – around the same time as the First Minister.

Joffre is the daughter of the late SNP MSP Kay Ullrich, who helped ignite Sturgeon's interest in politics as a teenager while Margaret Thatcher was Conservative Prime Minister.

The article said: "Opposition to nuclear weapons remains at the heart of the convictions of the SNP and the First Minister. In one of the rare documentaries devoted to her career, a BBC 'Panorama' broadcast in 2015, Nicola Sturgeon meets her former professor of political studies Roy Kelso, at her college at Greenwood Academy, in Irvine. Roy Kelso tracked down one of her high school copies, which she devoted to a vehement attack on the British nuclear deterrent program, called Trident.

“'You cannot say that I have not been consistent in my convictions!' notes Nicola Sturgeon in this film."

Burns told Le Monde: "People often wonder why Nicola did not join the Labour Party, which was so dominant here. But that was precisely part of the problem: despite its dominance establishment, it was unable to stop Thatcher!"

Robertson also told of his long political friendship with the First Minister after he joined the SNP aged 15.

"We are a whole generation to have registered at the same time, all because of Thatcher's policy," Robertson told Le Monde. "We all found ourselves in the party. At the time, we were passionate, but independence was a distant prospect. "

Robertson added: "Charlie Reid signed me up for the SNP, he was active in the youth branch of the party in Edinburgh. With his twin, Craig, they had just formed the music group of the Proclaimers. Check out the words of their first hit [the album This Is the Story, 1987], you will understand the roots of our vision of the world."

The article also focuses on how Brexit can offer a second chance for a new vote on independence and how Sturgeon's handling of the pandemic has improved her popularity among Scots while Johnson's popularity plummeted.

It said: "The pandemic allowed her to complete this character of competent and reassuring leader in the eyes of the Scots, in contrast to the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, readily caricatured as a blunderer without convictions.

"In the spring of 2020, Scotland however suffered the first wave of Covid-19 almost as brutally as the rest of the United Kingdom. The poorly protected retirement homes suffered a massacre. But the First Minister quickly knew how to recognize her mistakes. She also knew how to take advantage of Scotland's own prerogatives in terms of public health, imposes careful lockdown and her empathy worked wonders during her daily “Covid-19 briefings”."

It also looked at what the Pro-UK critics are currently saying about the First Minister and how the row with her predecessor Alex Salmond has not damaged her popularity.

READ MORE: European media join campaign trail in key Holyrood election seats

"She is criticised for the lightness of her economic arguments in favour of independence or the weakness of her record as First Minister minister," it said.

"Even the incredible conflict...at the beginning of 2021 with Alex Salmond has barely registered in the polls."

Le Monde is one of France's most influential national newspapers. It tends to be more left-leaning than its main rival Le Figaro.

The profile of the First Minister is among a range of European media content focusing on the Holyrood election.

Last week The National revealed how French and Italian TV and newspaper journalists were reporting on the election in key battlegrounds.