Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died this week at the age of 96, was buried yesterday, Saturday January 11, in Brittany at Trinité-sur-Mer. A figure of the far-right and the Fifth Republic, he leaves behind a controversial legacy that will largely be carried by his daughter, Marine Le Pen.
This is like the messages published on the day of his death. Very few people pay homage to Jean-Marie Le Pen in the political class. Almost no one even, with the exception of the extreme right. And again, in the laudatory press release from the National Rally, the word “controversy” is mentioned.
Among his numerous adversaries, many recall his verbal slippages against a backdrop of anti-Semitism, at the head of which his comments on the gas chambers which he considered as a point of « detail » of the Second World War. This resounding exit lasted his entire career until it caused a breakup with his own daughter. These remarks made in 1987 then reaffirmed in 2015, were, at the time, a drop in the ocean for Marine Le Pen. Now at the head of a National Front in search of “normalization”, she excluded her father from the party. He will pay her back by taking her to court and even going so far as to publicly ask her to no longer use the name “Le Pen”.
Also readDeath of Jean-Marie Le Pen: contrasting reactions from the French political class
An effective but insufficient break
This particularly violent episode will help, in part, Marine Le Pen to progress at the polls. Twice finalist in the presidential election (2017 and 2022), the flame party now called National Rally (always in a desire to break) obtains up to 11 million votes in the last legislative elections… This is more than double what Jean-Marie Le Pen did in 2002, when, to everyone’s surprise, he also managed to qualify for the second round of a presidential election.
If the results are better every year, the RN and Marine Le Pen constantly fail to win and remain marginalized. As if, despite obstacles being overcome, a final barrier, a psychological one, still prevented a decisive number of voters from “crossing” the Rubicon. The presence of crazy and sometimes openly racist candidates during the last legislative elections obviously only strengthens the dam.
Also readLegislative elections in France: why the RN struggles to make its activists credible candidates
Changing the theme will not be enough
If, in terms of form, changes to names and casting are relatively easy to make, getting to the substance is much more delicate. The major themes imposed by Jean-Marie Le Pen in the political debate onimmigration and national identity are also those which made the electoral rise of the party and still form its brand image. Aware of their – by nature – sulfurous characters, Marine Le Pen wanted to emphasize economic and social issues to broaden her electoral base. Bet won in the bastions formerly won on the left but by going to the left, we risk losing on the right. This was seen for a short period in the polls during the last presidential election. During the irruption of Eric Zemmour. The other far-right candidate whose campaign essentially revolved around “Great Replacement» threatened that of the RN. Marine Le Pen therefore remains in search of balance. Still weighed down by her father, that is not enough to prevail for the moment.
