The beginnings
PHOTO DOMINIQUE FAGET, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Jean-Marie Le Pen in September 1985, when he was president of the National Front
The “National Front for French Unity”, a party formed from nationalist groups including Ordre Nouveau, was created on October 5, 1972. After a score of less than 1% in the 1974 presidential election, its president, Jean-Marie Le Pen, chose the fight against immigration as his priority. In 1983, the first major electoral victory: Jean-Pierre Stirbois, secretary general of the FN, obtained 16.7% in the first round of the municipal elections in Dreux (Eure-et-Loir) and allied himself with the right in the second round. Three years later, proportional representation brought 35 FN deputies into the National Assembly. In the 1988 presidential election, Mr. Le Pen climbed to 14.37% of the vote, but the return to the single-member majority vote left him with only one female deputy.
The detail “
In September 1987, Jean-Marie Le Pen called the Nazi gas chambers a “detail in the history of the Second World War”. He was convicted in 1991. Other comments stigmatizing homosexuals, immigrants and even the Roma served, according to him, the progression of the FN. In the presidential election of spring 1995, Mr. Le Pen obtained 15.15%. On 1er May, on the sidelines of an FN parade, a Moroccan dies in the Seine pushed by skinheads. From 1992 to 1998, the party took the cities of Toulon (Var), Marignane (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Orange (Vaucluse).
2002 earthquake
A bolt from the blue in 2002: Mr. Le Pen qualified for the second round of the presidential election against Jacques Chirac with 16.86% of the vote. His daughter Marine became vice-president of the party. For his last presidential election, in 2007, Jean-Marie Le Pen obtained 10.44%, his worst score since 1988. The FN also declined in the 2009 European elections (4.17%). At the head of the party since January 2011, Marine Le Pen, with a strategy of “normalization” emphasizing social issues, rose to 17.9% in the 2012 presidential election. Marion Maréchal, his niece, became an MP. After winning 11 town halls in 2014, the FN achieved a historic victory in the European elections (25%), far ahead of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the Socialist Party (PS).
Father and daughter, nothing is going well
PHOTO ERIC GAILLARD, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Marine Le Pen and her father, Jean-Marie, in 2009
In the cantonal elections the following year, the FN was in the lead in 43 departments. But Mr. Le Pen repeats his comments on the gas chambers. At 87, he was expelled from the party. In April 2017, after a debate that she recognized as “failed”, Marine Le Pen lost the presidential election against Emmanuel Macron. In the legislative elections, the FN obtained eight deputies. At the end of June, Marine Le Pen was indicted in an investigation into the parliamentary assistants of FN MEPs. A trial is scheduled for fall 2024.
The FN becomes RN
Re-elected as leader in 2018, Marine Le Pen wants to symbolize the “transformation” of the FN into a “party of government” and alliances: it becomes the National Rally (RN). New first place in the 2019 European elections, with 23.3% of the votes. In September 2021, Marine Le Pen handed over the reins to Jordan Bardella to devote herself to the presidential election. His rival on the far right, Eric Zemmour, snatched Marion Maréchal from him.
89 deputies
The 2022 presidential election marks a new failure against Emmanuel Macron. Nevertheless, with 41.5% of the votes, the extreme right has never come so close to power under the Ve Republic. In the legislative elections that followed, the breakthrough was historic, with the RN becoming, with 89 elected representatives, the leading opposition group.
Historic score and shock dissolution
On June 9, Jordan Bardella’s list triumphed in the European elections with 31.36% of the vote, more than double the score of the Macronist list. In the process, Emmanuel Macron dissolved the Assembly. “We are ready to exercise power if the French people trust us in the future legislative elections,” asserted Marine Le Pen. Jordan Bardella became the favorite for the post of prime minister, but he warned that he would only accept the position if he could command an absolute majority in the National Assembly. Astonishment on the right: Eric Ciotti, president of the Republicans (LR), allied himself with the RN. His party tried to oust him and imploded. Joint RN-LR candidates were announced in 70 constituencies. Marion Maréchal called for a vote for them, confirming her break with Eric Zemmour.