More than 50 years after the founding of the National Front (FN), Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, which became the National Rally (RN), has gone from marginality to commonplace at the ballot box, becoming the leading party in France. It is now on the verge of power, after garnering around 34% of the vote in the first round of early legislative elections on Sunday.
Published at 1:52 a.m.
Updated at 5:00 a.m.
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 born 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, chooses the fight against immigration as a priority. In 1983, first major electoral victory: Jean-Pierre Stirbois, general secretary of the FN, obtained 16.7% in the first round of municipal elections in Dreux (Eure-et-Loir) and allied himself with the right in the second round. Three years later, the proportional vote brought 35 FN deputies into the National Assembly. In the 1988 presidential election, Mr. Le Pen rose to 14.37% of the vote, but the return to the single-member majority system left him with only one 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 1is 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 anymore
PHOTO ERIC GAILLARD, ARCHIVES REUTERS
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 its leader in 2018, Marine Le Pen wants to symbolize the “molt” 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 vote. In September 2021, Marine Le Pen hands over the reins to Jordan Bardella to devote herself to the presidential election. Her rival on the far right, Eric Zemmour, takes Marion Maréchal from her.
89 deputies
The 2022 presidential election marks a new failure against Emmanuel Macron. Nevertheless, with 41.5% of the vote, the far right has never come so close to power under the Fifthe 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 votes, more than double the score of the Macronist list. In the process, Emmanuel Macron dissolves the Assembly. “We are ready to exercise power if the French trust us during future legislative elections,” says Marine Le Pen. Jordan Bardella becomes favorite for the post of prime minister, but he warns that he will only accept the office if he can have an absolute majority in the National Assembly. Astonishment on the right: Eric Ciotti, president of the Republicans (LR), allies himself with the RN. His party tries to oust him and implodes. Joint RN-LR candidates are announced in 70 constituencies. Marion Maréchal calls to vote for them, confirming her breakup with Eric Zemmour.
