We don’t know who, Lamartine, Staël, Desproges or anyone else, first said “the more I know men, the better I love my dog.” No matter, this sentence, Jean-Marie Le Pen liked to throw it around sometimes as the Charles Magazinein 2018. Died Tuesday at the age of 96, the founder of the National Front (FN) had at least two passions in his life: the far right and pets. For the latter, the “menhir” has given his all, accumulating around thirty four-legged companions since his birth in 1928, with a marked preference for large dogs.
In 96 years, Jean-Marie Le Pen will have had 10 cats and 19 dogs. “I am racialist, I like purebred dogs,” he confided to the Revue Charles. A preference which is confirmed by the enumeration of his bestiary: two poodles, a German shepherd, seven Dobermans, six greyhounds and, despite this, two “mongrels” crossed with Bas-rouge and Beauceron. The latter two, named Sergent and Major, have long been suspected of the bloody murder of Marine Le Pen’s cat, precipitating her departure from the family home in Montretout.
“A form of brutality, authoritarianism”
Obviously, a bunch of press photos are circulating, showing the former far-right leader in the company of his dogs. However, it seems that the idea of showing off in this way with his animals did not come from him, as the photographer Helmut Newton, author in 1987 of the famous image of Le Pen surrounded by his Dobermans, had recalled. “I had a harder time convincing him to pose with his dogs. He didn’t want to, but I was able to persuade him,” explained the photographer in 1998, during the Visa pour l’image festival, as recalled Liberation.
That he was reluctant to agree to pose with his Dobermans, Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, professor of communications at Sciences Po, understands: “He knew the symbolism represented by this breed of dogs and did not want to fall into the trap,” explains -he. Marine Le Pen does not like this photo in which she sees “a form of brutality, of authoritarianism”. Her father finally found her “very beautiful”, to the point of having thousands of postcards printed.
-“A very regal symbol”
Although he may have balked in 1987, the exercise must ultimately have pleased him since there were subsequently numerous other series of photos where the founder of the FN happily posed with his successive dogs. And for good reason, he made it a communication argument: “At the time of Jean-Marie Le Pen, it was a very regal symbol which allowed one to put oneself on the level of heads of state”, assures Philippe Moreau Chevrolet. “To show that we were capable of domesticating nature, of making ourselves obeyed, but also of showing a certain benevolence,” he adds.
Read our articles on the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen
For the communications specialist, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s dog breeds were not trivial either, “aggressive, territorial, almost caricatured animals” which well illustrated the side “we are dominant, we want to conquer the world” that the FN reflected at the time of the “menhir”. And that Marine Le Pen is exclusively focused on cats is not insignificant either, “because the RN is now in a desire to show proximity and a reassuring side and no longer dominant at all”, analyzes the science professor Po.
