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Front National (France)
Encyclopedia
The National Front is a political party in France
. The party was founded in 1972, seeking to unify a variety of French far-right currents
of the time. Jean-Marie Le Pen
was the party's first leader and the undisputed centre of the party from its start until his resignation in 2011. While the party struggled as a marginal force for its first ten years, since 1984 it has been the unrivalled major force of the French far-right. . The 2002 presidential election
was the first ever in France to include a far-right candidate in the run-off, as Le Pen beat the socialist candidate in the first round. In the run-off, Le Pen nevertheless finished a distant second to Jacques Chirac
. Due to the French electoral system, the party's representation in public office has been limited, despite its electoral success. The current leader of the party is Marine Le Pen
, who took over from her father in 2011.
The party's political profile is based on French nationalism
. Its current policies include economic protectionism
, a zero tolerance
approach to law and order
issues, and opposition to immigration
. Since the 1990s, its stance on the European Union
has grown increasingly eurosceptic
. The party's opposition to immigration is particularly focused on non-European immigration, and includes support for deporting illegal, criminal, and unemployed immigrants; its policy is nevertheless more moderate today than it was at its most radical point in the 1990s. Some party officials have historically been subject to controversy for occasionally promoting historical revisionism
, specifically related to the Second World War
. However, the party's current leader, Marine Le Pen, has actively distanced herself from this.
of 1789, and the party rejects both the revolution and its legacy. One of the primary progenitors of the party was the Action Française
, founded at the end of the nineteenth century, and its descendants in the Restauration Nationale, a pro-monarchy group that supports the claim of the Count of Paris
to the French throne. More recently, the party drew from the Poujadism
of the 1950s, which started out as an anti-tax movement without relations to the far-right; included among its parliamentary deputies, however, were "proto-nationalists" such as Jean-Marie Le Pen
. Another conflict that is part of the party's background was the Algerian War (many frontistes, including Le Pen, were directly involved in the war), and the far-right dismay over the decision by French President Charles de Gaulle
to abandon his promise of holding on to French Algeria
. In the 1965 presidential election
, Le Pen unsuccessfully attempted to consolidate the far-right vote around the far-right presidential candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour
. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the French far-right consisted mainly of small extreme movements such as Occident
, Groupe Union Défense (GUD), and the Ordre Nouveau
(ON).
. The party was formally launched on 5 October 1972 under the name National Front for French Unity (Front national pour l'unité française), or National Front. In order to create a broad movement, the ON sought to model the new party (as it earlier had sought to model itself) on the more established Italian Social Movement
(MSI), which at the time appeared to establish a broad coalition for the Italian right. The FN adopted a French version of the MSI tricolour flame as its official logo. It wanted to unite the various French far-right currents, and initially brought together Le Pen's nationalist group, Roger Holeindre's
Party of French Unity, Georges Bidault's
Justice and Liberty movement, former Poujadists, Algerian War veterans, and some monarchists
, among others. Le Pen was chosen to be the first president of the party, as he was untainted with the militant public image of the ON and was a relatively moderate figure on the far-right.
Having been formed expressly for the 1973 legislative elections, the election became a disaster with a mere 0.5% of the national vote (Le Pen won 5% in his Paris constituency). The rhetoric used in the campaign stressed old far-right themes and was largely uninspiring to the electorate at the time. Otherwise, its official program at this point was relatively moderate, differing little from the mainstream right. Le Pen sought the "total fusion" of the currents in the party, and warned against crude activism. The more radical elements of the ON were not persuaded, and reverted back to hard activism only to be banned later in the same year. Le Pen soon became the undisputed leader of the party, although this cost it many leading members and much of its militant base.
In the 1974 presidential election
, Le Pen failed to find a mobilising theme for his campaign. Many of its major issues, such as anti-communism
, were shared by most of the mainstream right. Other FN issues included calls for increased French birth-rates, immigration
reduction (although this was downplayed), establishment of a professional army, abrogation of the Évian Accords
, and generally the creation of a "French and European renaissance
." Despite being the only nationalist candidate, he failed to gain the support of a united far-right, as the various groups either rallied behind other candidates or called for voter abstention. The campaign further lost ground when the Revolutionary Communist League
published a denunciation of Le Pen's alleged involvement in torture during his time in Algeria. In his first presidential election, Le Pen gained only 0.8% of the national vote.
and his "revolutionary nationalists", Jean-Pierre Stirbois
and his "solidarists
", the Nouvelle Droite
, and Bernard Anthony and some Catholic fundamentalists. Following the death of Duprat in a bomb attack, the revolutionary nationalists left the party, while Stirbois became Le Pen's deputy as his solidarists effectively ousted the neo-fascist
tendency in the party leadership. The far-right was marginalised altogether in the 1978 legislative elections
, although the PFN was better off. For the first-ever election for the European Parliament in 1979
, the PFN had become part of an attempt to build a "Euro-Right" alliance of European far-right parties, and was in the end the only one of the two that contested the election. It fielded Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour as its primary candidate, while Le Pen called for voter abstention.
For the 1981 presidential election
, both Le Pen and Pascal Gauchon of the PFN declared their intents to run. However, an increased requirements on support by elected officials had been introduced for the election, which left both Le Pen and Gauchon unable to stand for the election. (In France, parties have to secure support from a specific number of elected officials, from a specific number of departments, in order to be eligible to run for election. In 1976, the number of required elected officials was increased fivefold, and the number of departments threefold.) The election was won by François Mitterrand
of the Socialist Party
(PS), which gave the political left national power for the first time in the Fifth Republic; he then dissolved the National Assembly to call a snap legislative election. The PS went on to reach its best ever result with an absolute majority in the 1981 legislative election
. This "socialist takeover" led to a radicalisation in centre-right, anti-communist, and anti-socialist voters. With only three weeks to prepare its campaign, the FN fielded only a limited number of candidates and won a mere 0.2% of the national vote. The PFN was even worse off, and the election marked the effective end of competition from the party.
, the centre-right Rally for the Republic
(RPR) and centrist Union for French Democracy
(UDF) formed alliances with the FN in a number of towns. The most notable result came in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, where Le Pen was elected to the local council with 11% of the vote. Later by-elections kept media attention on the party, and it was for the first time allowed to pose as a viable component of the broader right. In a by-election in Dreux
in October, the FN won 17% of the vote. With the choice of defeat to the political left or dealing with the FN, the local RPR and UDF, to a minor national sensation, agreed to form an alliance with the FN, and together won the second round with 55% of the vote. The events in Dreux were a monumental factor for the rise of the FN.
Le Pen protested the media boycott against his party by sending letters to President Mitterrand in mid-1982. After some letter exchanges, Mitterrand instructed the heads of the main television channels to give equitable coverage to the FN. In January 1984, the party made its first appearance in a monthly poll of political popularity, in which 9% of respondents held a "positive opinion" of the FN and some support for Le Pen. The next month, Le Pen was for the first time invited to a prime-time television interview program, which he himself later deemed "the hour that changed everything". The 1984 European elections
in June came as a shock, as the FN won 11% of the vote and ten seats. Notably, the election used proportional representation and had a low level of importance, which played to its advantage. The FN made inroads in constituencies of both the right and left, and finished second in a number of towns. While many socialists had arguably exploited the party in order to divide the right, Mitterrand later conceded that he had underestimated Le Pen. By July, 17% of opinion poll respondents held a positive opinion of the FN.
By the early 1980s, the FN featured a mosaic of ideological tendencies and attracted figures who were previously resistant to the party. The party managed to draw supporters from the mainstream right, including some high-profile defectors from the RPR, UDF, and CNIP
. In the 1984 European elections, eleven of the 81 FN candidates came from these parties, and the party's list also included an Arab
and a Jew (although in unwinnable positions). Former collaborators were also accepted in the party, as Le Pen urged the need for "reconciliation", arguing that forty years after the war the only important question was whether or not "they wish to serve their country." The FN won 8.7% overall support in the 1985 cantonal elections
, and over 30% in some areas.
For the upcoming 1986 legislative elections
the FN took advantage of a new proportional representation system that had been imposed by Mitterrand in order to moderate a foreseeable defeat for his PS. In the election, the FN won 9.8% of the vote and 35 seats in the National Assembly. Many of its seats could be filled by a new wave of respectable political operatives, notables, who had joined the party after its 1984 success. Nevertheless, the RPR won a majority together with smaller centre-right parties, and thus avoided the need to deal with the FN. Although it was unable to exercise any real political influence, the party could however project an image of political legitimacy. The party's time in the National Assembly effectively came to an end when Jacques Chirac
reinstated the two-round system of majority voting for the next election. In the regional elections
held on the same day, it won 137 seats, and gained representation in 21 of the 22 French regional councils. The RPR depended on FN support to win presidencies in some regional councils, and the FN won vice-presidential posts in four regions.
, and Africa
. The management of the formal campaign, launched in April 1987, was entrusted to Bruno Mégret
, one of the new notables. Together with his entourage, Le Pen traversed France for the entire period and, helped by Mégret, employed an American-style campaign. Le Pen's presidential campaign was highly successful; no candidates came close to rival his ability to excite audiences at rallies and boost ratings at television appearances. Utilising a populist
tone, Le Pen presented himself as the representative of the people against the "gang of four" (RPR, UDF, PS, PCF), while the central theme of his campaign was "national preference". In the 1988 presidential election
, Le Pen won an unprecedented 14.4% of the vote, double the votes from 1984.
While the snap 1988 legislative elections
saw a return to two-ballot majority voting, the FN was also hurt by the limited campaign period and the depart of many notables. In the election the party retained its 9.8% support from the previous legislative election, but was reduced to a single seat in the National Assembly. Following some anti-Semitic
comments made by Le Pen and the FN newspaper National Hebdo in the late 1980s, some valuable FN politicians left the party. Other quarrels soon also left the party without its remaining member of the National Assembly. In November 1988, General Secretary Jean-Pierre Stirbois, who, together with his wife Marie-France, had been instrumental in the FN's early electoral successes, died in a car accident, leaving Bruno Mégret as the unrivalled de facto FN deputy leader. The FN only got 5% in the 1988 cantonal elections
, while the RPR announced it would reject any alliance with the FN, now including at local level. In the 1989 European elections
, the FN held on to its ten seats as it won 11.7% of the vote.
In the wake of FN electoral success, the immigration debate, growing concerns over Islamic fundamentalism, and the fatwa
against Salman Rushdie by Ayatollah Khomeini
, the 1989 affaire du foulard was the first major test of the relations between the values of the French Republic and Islam
. Following the event, surveys found that French public opinion was largely negative towards Islam. In a 1989 legislative by-election in Dreux, FN candidate Marie-France Stirbois—campaigning on an anti-Islamism
platform—returned a symbolic FN presence to the National Assembly. By the early 1990s, some mainstream politicians began employing anti-immigration rhetoric. In the first round of the 1993 legislative elections
the FN soared to 12.7% of the overall vote, but did not win a single seat due to the nature of the electoral system (if the election had used proportional representation, it would have won 64 seats). In the 1995 presidential election
, Le Pen rose slightly to 15% of the vote.
, namely Toulon
, Marignane
, and Orange
. (It had won a mayorship only once before, in the small town of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard in 1989.) Le Pen then declared that his party would implement its "national preference" policy, with the risk of provoking the central government and being at odds with the laws of the Republic. The FN pursued interventionist policies with regards to the new cultural complexion of their towns by directly influencing artistic events, cinema schedules, and library holdings, as well as cutting or halting subsidies for multicultural associations. The party won Vitrolles
, its fourth town, in a 1997 by-election, where similar policies were pursued. Vitrolles' new mayor Catherine Mégret (who ran in place of her husband Bruno) went further in one significant measure, introducing a special 5,000 franc
allowance for babies born to at least one parent of French (or EU) nationality. The measure was ruled illegal by a court, also giving her a suspended prison sentence, a fine, and a two-year ban from public office.
the FN polled its best-ever result with 15.3% support in metropolitan France
, confirming its position as the third most important political force in France. It also showed that the party had become established enough to compete without its leader, who decided not to run to focus on the 2002 presidential election. Although it won only one seat in the National Assembly, it advanced to the second round in 132 constituencies. Nonetheless, the FN was arguably more influential now than it had been in 1986 with its 35 seats. While Bruno Mégret and Bruno Gollnisch
, in an unusual display of dissent, favoured tactical cooperation with a weakened centre-right following the left's victory, Le Pen rejected any such compromise. In the tenth FN national congress in 1997, Mégret stepped up his position in the party as its rising star and a potential leader following Le Pen. Le Pen however refused to designate Mégret as his successor elect, and instead made his wife Jany the leader of the FN list for the upcoming European election.
Mégret and his faction left the FN in January 1999 and founded the National Republican Movement
(MNR), effectively splitting the FN in half at most levels. Many of those who joined the new MNR had joined the FN in mid-1980s, in part from the Nouvelle Droite, with a vision of building bridges to the parliamentary right. Many had also been particularly influential in intellectualising the FN's policies on immigration, identity and "national preference", and, following the split, Le Pen denounced them as "extremist" and "racist". Support for the parties was almost equal in the 1999 European election
, as the FN polled its lowest national score since 1984 with just 5.7%, and the MNR won 3.3%. The effects of the split, and competition from more moderate nationalists, had left their combined support lower than the FN result in 1984.
, opinion polls had predicted a run-off between incumbent President Chirac and PS candidate Lionel Jospin
. The shock was thus great when Le Pen unexpectedly beat Jospin (with 0.7%) in the first round. This resulted in the first presidential run-off since 1969 without a leftist candidate, and the first ever with a candidate of the far-right. To Le Pen's advantage, the election campaign had increasingly focused on law and order issues, helped by media attention on a number of violent incidents. Jospin had also been weakened due to the competition between an exceptional number of leftist parties. Nevertheless, Chirac did not even have to campaign in the second round, as widespread anti-Le Pen protests from the media and public opinion culminated on May Day
, with an estimated 1.5 million demonstrators across France. Chirac also refused to debate with Le Pen, and the traditional televised debate was cancelled. In the end, Chirac won the presidential run-off with an unprecedented 82.2% of the vote and with 71% of his votes—according to polls—cast simply "to block Le Pen." Following the presidential election, the main centre-right parties merged to form the broad-based Union for a Popular Movement
(UMP). The FN failed to hold on to Le Pen's support for the 2002 legislative elections
, in which it got 11.3% of the vote. It nevertheless outpolled Mégret's MNR, which won a mere 1.1% support, even though it had fielded the same amount of candidates.
A new electoral system of two-round voting had been introduced for the 2004 regional elections
, in part in an attempt to reduce the FN's influence in regional councils. The FN won 15.1% of the vote in metropolitan France, almost the same as in 1998, but its number of councillors was almost halved due to the new electoral system. For the 2004 European elections
too, a new system less favourable to the FN had been introduced. The party regained some of its strength from 1999, earning 9.8% of the vote and seven seats.
For the 2007 presidential election
, Le Pen and Mégret had agreed to join forces. Le Pen came fourth in the election with 11% of the vote, and the party won no seats in the legislative election of the same year
. The party's 4.3% support was the lowest score since the 1981 election and only one candidate, Marine Le Pen
in Pas de Calais, reached the runoff (where she was defeated by the socialist incumbent). These electoral defeats partly accounted for the party's financial problems. Le Pen announced the sale of the FN headquarters in Saint-Cloud
, Le Paquebot, as well as of his personal armoured car. Twenty permanent employees of the FN were also dismissed in 2008. In the 2010 regional elections
the FN appeared to have re-emerged on the political scene after surprisingly winning almost 12% of the overall vote and 118 seats.
the party won 15% of the overall vote (up from 4.5% in 2008). However, due to the French electoral system, the party only won 2 of the 2,026 seats up for election.
For the upcoming 2012 presidential election
, opinion polls have shown Marine Le Pen as a serious challenger, with a few polls even suggesting that she could win the first round of the election.
, nationalist
, and populist
. The FN has changed considerably since its foundation, as it has pursued the principles of modernisation and pragmatism, adapting to the changing political climate. At the same time, its message has increasingly influenced mainstream political parties, although the FN too has moved somewhat closer towards the centre-right. While some have denounced its policies as "fascist", features that are integral to historical (and generic) fascism are absent in the party.
policies of "zero tolerance
", harsher sentencing, increased prison
capacity, as well as a referendum
on re-introducing the death penalty. In its 2001 program, the party linked the breakdown of law and order to immigration, deeming immigration a "mortal threat to civil peace in France."
In the early years of the FN, immigration policy was only a minor issue for the party, although it did call for immigration to be reduced. Themes of exclusion of non-European immigrants was largely brought into the party in 1978, with the arrival of Jean-Pierre Stirbois and his "solidarist" group. The topic subsequently became increasingly important in the early 1980s.
In more recent popular and even academic press, the party's program has often been reduced to the single issue of immigration. The party opposes immigration, particularly Muslim
immigration from North Africa
, West Africa
, and the Middle East
. In a standardised pamphlet delivered to all French electors in the 1995 presidential election
, Le Pen proposed to send "three million non-Europeans" out of France by "humane and dignified means." Over the years, and especially since the 1999 split, the FN has cultivated a more moderate image on issues of immigration and Islam, at least compared to some of the proposals of Mégret's MNR or Philippe de Villiers
's Movement for France
. It does no longer expressly support the systematic repatriation of legal immigrants, although it supports the deportation of illegal, criminal, and unemployed immigrants.
Since becoming leader of the party in 2011, Marine Le Pen has focused mostly on the perceived threat against the secular value system
of the French Republic. She has criticised Muslim
s, for what she sees as their intents to impose their own values on the country. Following the rebellions in several Arab countries
, she has been active in campaigning on halting the migration to Europe of Tunisian and Libyan immigrants.
, and started espousing an extremely market liberal and antistatist program. Issues included lower taxes, to reduce state intervention, as well as to dissolve the bureaucracy
. Some scholars have even considered that the FN's 1978 program may be regarded as "Reaganite
before Reagan
".
The party's economic policy shifted from the 1980s to the 1990s from neoliberalism
to protectionism
. This should be seen within the framework of a changed international environment, from a battle between the Free World
and communism, to one between the nation and the globalising project. During the 1980s, Le Pen complained about the rising number of "social parasites", and called for deregulation, tax cuts, and the phasing-out of the welfare state. As the party gained growing support from the economically vulnerable, it converted towards politics of social welfare and economic protectionism. This was part of its shift away from its former claim of being the "social, popular and national right" to its claim of being "neither right nor left – French!" Increasingly, the party's program became an uneasy amalgam of free market and welfarist policies.
Under her leadership, Marine Le Pen has been more clear in her support for protectionism, while she has criticised globalism
and capitalism
. She has been a proponent of letting the government take care of health care
, education
, transportation, banking and energy.
to turning against it. In 2002 Le Pen campaigned on pulling France out of the EU and re-introducing the franc as national currency. In the early 2000s the party denounced the Schengen
, Maastricht
, and Amsterdam treaties as foundations for "a supranational entity spelling the end of France." In 2004, the party critisised the EU as "the last stage on the road to world government
," likening it to a "puppet of the New World Order." It also proposed breaking all institutional ties back to the Treaty of Rome
, while it returned to supporting a common European currency to rival the United States dollar
. Further, it rejected the possible accession of Turkey to the EU
. The FN was also one of several parties that backed France's 2005 rejection of the Treaty for a European Constitution. In other issues, Le Pen opposed the invasions of Iraq, led by the United States
, both in the 1991 Gulf War
and the 2003 Iraq War. Le Pen visited Saddam Hussein
in Baghdad
in 1990, and subsequently considered him a friend.
Marine Le Pen has advocated that France should leave the euro
(along with Spain, Greece and Portugal). She also wants to reintroduce customs borders
and has campaigned against allowing dual citizenship. During both the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis
and the 2011 Libyan civil war
, she opposed the French military involvements. She has recast the party's image towards Israel
, after affirming Israel's right to secure itself from terrorism, and criticising the leadership of Iran
.
, including the motto Travail, famille, patrie
. In line with this, some FN party officials, notably Jean-Marie Le Pen and Bruno Gollnisch, have occasionally espoused what has been seen as latent anti-Semitism in the party, including minimisation of the Holocaust and the Occupation. In 2005, Jean-Marie Le Pen considered in the far-right newspaper Rivarol that the German occupation of France "was not particularly inhumane even if there were some blunders," and in 1987 referred to the Nazi gas chambers as "a point of detail of the Second World War." He has repeated the latter claim several times. Also in 2005, Bruno Gollnisch cast doubt on the findings of the post-war tribunals and the official version of the Holocaust. Both received fines for these incidents. The current leader of the party, Marine Le Pen, publicly rebuked Gollnisch for his remarks, and distanced herself for a time from the party machine in protest against her father's comment.
. The first group it helped co-establish was the European Right
after the 1984 election, which also consisted of the Italian Social Movement
(MSI), its early inspiration, and the Greek National Political Union
. Following the 1989 election, it teamed up with the German Republicans and the Belgian Vlaams Blok
in a new European Right
group, while the MSI left due to the Germans' arrival. As the MSI evolved into the National Alliance
, it chose to distance itself from the FN. From 1999 to 2001, the FN was a member of the Technical Group of Independents
. In 2007, it was part of the short-lived Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty
group. Currently (and between the mentioned groups), the party sits among the non-affiliated Non-Inscrits
.
The party has also been active in establishing extra-parliamentary confederations. During the FN's 1997 national congress, the FN established the loose EuroNat
group, which consisted of a variety of European right-wing parties. Having failed to cooperate in the European Parliament, Le Pen sought in the mid-1990s to initiate contacts with other far-right parties, including from non-EU countries. The FN drew most support in Central
and Eastern Europe
, and Le Pen even visited the Turkish Welfare Party
. The significant Freedom Party of Austria
(FPÖ) refused to join the efforts, as Jörg Haider
sought to distance himself from Le Pen, and later attempted to build a separate group. Since 2009, the FN has been part of the Alliance of European National Movements
. Along with some other European parties, the FN in 2010 visited Japan
's Issuikai movement and the Yasukuni Shrine
. At a conference in 2011, the two new leaders of the FN and the FPÖ announced deeper cooperation between their parties.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The party was founded in 1972, seeking to unify a variety of French far-right currents
History of far right movements in France
The far-right tradition in France finds its origins in the Third Republic with the Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair.- The Third Republic from 1871 to 1914 :...
of the time. Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
was the party's first leader and the undisputed centre of the party from its start until his resignation in 2011. While the party struggled as a marginal force for its first ten years, since 1984 it has been the unrivalled major force of the French far-right. . The 2002 presidential election
French presidential election, 2002
The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of international attention because of Le Pen's unexpected appearance in...
was the first ever in France to include a far-right candidate in the run-off, as Le Pen beat the socialist candidate in the first round. In the run-off, Le Pen nevertheless finished a distant second to Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
. Due to the French electoral system, the party's representation in public office has been limited, despite its electoral success. The current leader of the party is Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen is a French politician, a lawyer by profession and the president of the Front National since 16 January 2011...
, who took over from her father in 2011.
The party's political profile is based on French nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
. Its current policies include economic protectionism
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
, a zero tolerance
Zero tolerance
Zero tolerance imposes automatic punishment for infractions of a stated rule, with the intention of eliminating undesirable conduct. Zero-tolerance policies forbid persons in positions of authority from exercising discretion or changing punishments to fit the circumstances subjectively; they are...
approach to law and order
Law and order (politics)
In politics, law and order refers to demands for a strict criminal justice system, especially in relation to violent and property crime, through harsher criminal penalties...
issues, and opposition to immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
. Since the 1990s, its stance on the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
has grown increasingly eurosceptic
Euroscepticism
Euroscepticism is a general term used to describe criticism of the European Union , and opposition to the process of European integration, existing throughout the political spectrum. Traditionally, the main source of euroscepticism has been the notion that integration weakens the nation state...
. The party's opposition to immigration is particularly focused on non-European immigration, and includes support for deporting illegal, criminal, and unemployed immigrants; its policy is nevertheless more moderate today than it was at its most radical point in the 1990s. Some party officials have historically been subject to controversy for occasionally promoting historical revisionism
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
, specifically related to the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. However, the party's current leader, Marine Le Pen, has actively distanced herself from this.
Background
The FN springs from a far-right tradition in France that dates back to the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
of 1789, and the party rejects both the revolution and its legacy. One of the primary progenitors of the party was the Action Française
Action Française
The Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...
, founded at the end of the nineteenth century, and its descendants in the Restauration Nationale, a pro-monarchy group that supports the claim of the Count of Paris
Count of Paris
Count of Paris was a title for the local magnate of the district around Paris in Carolingian times. Eventually, the count of Paris was elected to the French throne...
to the French throne. More recently, the party drew from the Poujadism
Pierre Poujade
Pierre Poujade was a French populist politician after whom the Poujadist movement was named.-Biography:Poujade was born in Saint-Céré, Lot, France, Europe. When he was only 8 years old, his father died, in 1928....
of the 1950s, which started out as an anti-tax movement without relations to the far-right; included among its parliamentary deputies, however, were "proto-nationalists" such as Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
. Another conflict that is part of the party's background was the Algerian War (many frontistes, including Le Pen, were directly involved in the war), and the far-right dismay over the decision by French President Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
to abandon his promise of holding on to French Algeria
French Algeria
French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...
. In the 1965 presidential election
French presidential election, 1965
The 1965 French presidential election was the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage of the Fifth Republic. It was also the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage since the Second Republic in 1848. It was won by incumbent president Charles de Gaulle who resigned...
, Le Pen unsuccessfully attempted to consolidate the far-right vote around the far-right presidential candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour
Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour
Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour was a lawyer and French nationalist politician. He was a candidate in the 1965 French presidential election when his campaign manager was Jean-Marie Le Pen. He won 1,260,208 votes, which was 5.2% of the total, giving him fourth place after De Gaulle, Mitterrand and...
. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the French far-right consisted mainly of small extreme movements such as Occident
Occident (movement)
Occident was a French far-right militant political group, often described as fascist-leaning. A number of members of Occident later were prominent members of right-wing parties, and even obtained ministerial positions. The movement never had more than 550 members.- History :Founded by Pierre Sidos...
, Groupe Union Défense (GUD), and the Ordre Nouveau
Ordre Nouveau (1960s)
Ordre Nouveau was a far-right movement created on December 15, 1969. The first president was the lawyer Jean-François Galvaire ....
(ON).
Early years (1972–1981)
While the ON had competed in some local elections since 1970, at its second congress in June 1972 it decided to establish a new political party to contest the 1973 legislative electionsFrench legislative election, 1973
French legislative elections took place on 4 and 11 March 1973 to elect the 5th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.In order to end the May 1968 crisis, President Charles de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and his party, the Gaullist Party Union of Democrats for the Republic , obtained...
. The party was formally launched on 5 October 1972 under the name National Front for French Unity (Front national pour l'unité française), or National Front. In order to create a broad movement, the ON sought to model the new party (as it earlier had sought to model itself) on the more established Italian Social Movement
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement , and later the Italian Social Movement–National Right , was a neo-fascist and post-fascist political party in Italy. Formed in 1946 by supporters of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the party became the fourth largest party in Italy by the early 1960s...
(MSI), which at the time appeared to establish a broad coalition for the Italian right. The FN adopted a French version of the MSI tricolour flame as its official logo. It wanted to unite the various French far-right currents, and initially brought together Le Pen's nationalist group, Roger Holeindre's
Roger Holeindre
Roger Holeindre is a French politician, vice-president of the National Front far-right party. He is a representant of the “national-conservative” tendency, opposed to the “nationalist revolutionaries”...
Party of French Unity, Georges Bidault's
Georges Bidault
Georges-Augustin Bidault was a French politician. During World War II, he was active in the French Resistance. After the war, he served as foreign minister and prime minister on several occasions before he joined the Organisation armée secrète.-Early life:...
Justice and Liberty movement, former Poujadists, Algerian War veterans, and some monarchists
Monarchism
Monarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government out of principle, independent from the person, the Monarch.In this system, the Monarch may be the...
, among others. Le Pen was chosen to be the first president of the party, as he was untainted with the militant public image of the ON and was a relatively moderate figure on the far-right.
Having been formed expressly for the 1973 legislative elections, the election became a disaster with a mere 0.5% of the national vote (Le Pen won 5% in his Paris constituency). The rhetoric used in the campaign stressed old far-right themes and was largely uninspiring to the electorate at the time. Otherwise, its official program at this point was relatively moderate, differing little from the mainstream right. Le Pen sought the "total fusion" of the currents in the party, and warned against crude activism. The more radical elements of the ON were not persuaded, and reverted back to hard activism only to be banned later in the same year. Le Pen soon became the undisputed leader of the party, although this cost it many leading members and much of its militant base.
In the 1974 presidential election
French presidential election, 1974
Presidential elections were held in :France in 1974, following the death of President Georges Pompidou. They went to a second round, and were won by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing by a margin of 1.6%...
, Le Pen failed to find a mobilising theme for his campaign. Many of its major issues, such as anti-communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
, were shared by most of the mainstream right. Other FN issues included calls for increased French birth-rates, immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
reduction (although this was downplayed), establishment of a professional army, abrogation of the Évian Accords
Évian Accords
The Évian Accords comprise a treaty which was signed in 1962 in Évian-les-Bains, France by France and the F.L.N. . The Accords put an end to the Algerian War with a formal cease-fire proclaimed for March 19, and formalized the idea of cooperative exchange between the two countries...
, and generally the creation of a "French and European renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
." Despite being the only nationalist candidate, he failed to gain the support of a united far-right, as the various groups either rallied behind other candidates or called for voter abstention. The campaign further lost ground when the Revolutionary Communist League
Revolutionary Communist League (France)
See Revolutionary Communist League for the other Ligue communiste révolutionnaire.The Revolutionary Communist League was a French democratic revolutionary socialist political party. It was the French section of the Fourth International...
published a denunciation of Le Pen's alleged involvement in torture during his time in Algeria. In his first presidential election, Le Pen gained only 0.8% of the national vote.
FN–PFN rivalry
Following the 1974 election, the FN was obscured by the appearance of the Party of New Forces (PFN), founded by FN dissidents (largely from the ON). Their competition weakened both parties throughout the 1970s. During the same time, the FN gained several new groups of supporters, including François DupratFrançois Duprat
François Duprat was a writer and Holocaust denier. He was known also for being a founding member of the Front National party and part of the leadership until his assassination in 1978.-Biography:...
and his "revolutionary nationalists", Jean-Pierre Stirbois
Jean-Pierre Stirbois
Jean-Pierre Stirbois was a French far-right politician, husband of Marie-France Stirbois. He has been associated with the first electoral breakthrough of the National Front, in Dreux in 1983....
and his "solidarists
Solidarism
Solidarism can refer to:*The term "Solidarism" is applied to the sociopolitical thought advanced by Émile Durkheim which is loosely applied to a leading social philosophy operative during and within the French Third Republic prior to the First World War....
", the Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite is a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist and GRECE .-Etymology and history:...
, and Bernard Anthony and some Catholic fundamentalists. Following the death of Duprat in a bomb attack, the revolutionary nationalists left the party, while Stirbois became Le Pen's deputy as his solidarists effectively ousted the neo-fascist
Neo-Fascism
Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...
tendency in the party leadership. The far-right was marginalised altogether in the 1978 legislative elections
French legislative election, 1978
The French legislative elections took place on 12 March and 19 March 1978 to elect the 6th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.On 2 April 1974 President Georges Pompidou died. The non-Gaullist center-right leader Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was elected to succeed him...
, although the PFN was better off. For the first-ever election for the European Parliament in 1979
European Parliament election, 1979 (France)
In 1979 the first direct elections to the European Parliament were held in France. Four parties were able to win seats: the centre right Union for French Democracy the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party. 61.7% of the French population turned out on...
, the PFN had become part of an attempt to build a "Euro-Right" alliance of European far-right parties, and was in the end the only one of the two that contested the election. It fielded Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour as its primary candidate, while Le Pen called for voter abstention.
For the 1981 presidential election
French presidential election, 1981
The French presidential election of 1981 took place on 10 May 1981, giving the presidency of France to François Mitterrand, the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic....
, both Le Pen and Pascal Gauchon of the PFN declared their intents to run. However, an increased requirements on support by elected officials had been introduced for the election, which left both Le Pen and Gauchon unable to stand for the election. (In France, parties have to secure support from a specific number of elected officials, from a specific number of departments, in order to be eligible to run for election. In 1976, the number of required elected officials was increased fivefold, and the number of departments threefold.) The election was won by François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
of the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
(PS), which gave the political left national power for the first time in the Fifth Republic; he then dissolved the National Assembly to call a snap legislative election. The PS went on to reach its best ever result with an absolute majority in the 1981 legislative election
French legislative election, 1981
French legislative elections took place on 14 June and 21 June 1981 to elect the 7th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.On 10 May 1981 François Mitterrand was elected President of France. He became the first Socialist to win this post under universal suffrage...
. This "socialist takeover" led to a radicalisation in centre-right, anti-communist, and anti-socialist voters. With only three weeks to prepare its campaign, the FN fielded only a limited number of candidates and won a mere 0.2% of the national vote. The PFN was even worse off, and the election marked the effective end of competition from the party.
Electoral breakthrough (1982–1988)
While the French party system had been dominated by polarisation and competition between the clear-cut ideological alternatives of two political blocks in the 1970s, the two blocks had largely moved towards the centre by the mid-1980s. This led many voters to perceive the blocks as more or less indistinguishable, in turn inciting them to seek out to new political alternatives. By October 1982, Le Pen supported the prospect of deals with the mainstream right, provided that the FN did not have to soften its position on key issues. In the 1983 municipal electionsFrench municipal elections, 1983
Municipal elections were held in France on 6 and 13 March 1983. The left, in power since only two years, was defeated in the 1983 locals by the RPR-UDF. The Communists lost Saint-Étienne and Reims, while the PS lost Tourcoing, Grenoble, and Roubaix. They narrowly held Marseille against Jean-Claude...
, the centre-right Rally for the Republic
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
(RPR) and centrist Union for French Democracy
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's...
(UDF) formed alliances with the FN in a number of towns. The most notable result came in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, where Le Pen was elected to the local council with 11% of the vote. Later by-elections kept media attention on the party, and it was for the first time allowed to pose as a viable component of the broader right. In a by-election in Dreux
Dreux
Dreux is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.-History:Dreux was known in ancient times as Durocassium, the capital of the Durocasses Celtic tribe. Despite the legend, its name was not related with Druids. The Romans established here a fortified camp known as Castrum...
in October, the FN won 17% of the vote. With the choice of defeat to the political left or dealing with the FN, the local RPR and UDF, to a minor national sensation, agreed to form an alliance with the FN, and together won the second round with 55% of the vote. The events in Dreux were a monumental factor for the rise of the FN.
Le Pen protested the media boycott against his party by sending letters to President Mitterrand in mid-1982. After some letter exchanges, Mitterrand instructed the heads of the main television channels to give equitable coverage to the FN. In January 1984, the party made its first appearance in a monthly poll of political popularity, in which 9% of respondents held a "positive opinion" of the FN and some support for Le Pen. The next month, Le Pen was for the first time invited to a prime-time television interview program, which he himself later deemed "the hour that changed everything". The 1984 European elections
European Parliament election, 1984 (France)
In 1984 the second direct elections to the European Parliament were held in France. Four parties were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party, and the Front National...
in June came as a shock, as the FN won 11% of the vote and ten seats. Notably, the election used proportional representation and had a low level of importance, which played to its advantage. The FN made inroads in constituencies of both the right and left, and finished second in a number of towns. While many socialists had arguably exploited the party in order to divide the right, Mitterrand later conceded that he had underestimated Le Pen. By July, 17% of opinion poll respondents held a positive opinion of the FN.
By the early 1980s, the FN featured a mosaic of ideological tendencies and attracted figures who were previously resistant to the party. The party managed to draw supporters from the mainstream right, including some high-profile defectors from the RPR, UDF, and CNIP
National Centre of Independents and Peasants
The National Centre of Independents and Peasants is a liberal-conservative and conservative-liberal political party in France, founded in 1949 by the merger of the National Centre of Independents with the...
. In the 1984 European elections, eleven of the 81 FN candidates came from these parties, and the party's list also included an Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
and a Jew (although in unwinnable positions). Former collaborators were also accepted in the party, as Le Pen urged the need for "reconciliation", arguing that forty years after the war the only important question was whether or not "they wish to serve their country." The FN won 8.7% overall support in the 1985 cantonal elections
French cantonal elections, 1985
Cantonale elections to renew canton general councillors were held in France on 10 and 17 March 1985. The left, in power since 1981, lost 10 departments. As a result, the right controlled 69 out of 95 departments.-Electoral system:...
, and over 30% in some areas.
For the upcoming 1986 legislative elections
French legislative election, 1986
The French legislative elections took place on 16 March 1986 to elect the 8th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. Contrary to other legislative elections of the Fifth Republic, the electoral system used was that of Party-list proportional representation.Since the 1981 election of François...
the FN took advantage of a new proportional representation system that had been imposed by Mitterrand in order to moderate a foreseeable defeat for his PS. In the election, the FN won 9.8% of the vote and 35 seats in the National Assembly. Many of its seats could be filled by a new wave of respectable political operatives, notables, who had joined the party after its 1984 success. Nevertheless, the RPR won a majority together with smaller centre-right parties, and thus avoided the need to deal with the FN. Although it was unable to exercise any real political influence, the party could however project an image of political legitimacy. The party's time in the National Assembly effectively came to an end when Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
reinstated the two-round system of majority voting for the next election. In the regional elections
French regional elections, 1986
Regional elections were held in France on 16 March 1986. At stake were the presidencies of each of France's 26 régions, which, though they don't have legislative autonomy, manage sizeable budgets. The parliamentary right, led by the conservative Rally for the Republic and the centre-right Union for...
held on the same day, it won 137 seats, and gained representation in 21 of the 22 French regional councils. The RPR depended on FN support to win presidencies in some regional councils, and the FN won vice-presidential posts in four regions.
Consolidation (1988–1995)
Le Pen's campaign for the upcoming presidential election unofficially began in the months following the 1986 election. To promote his statemanship credentials, he made trips to South East Asia, the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. The management of the formal campaign, launched in April 1987, was entrusted to Bruno Mégret
Bruno Mégret
Bruno Mégret is a French Far-right politician. He is the leader of the Mouvement National Républicain political party, but retired in 2008 from political action.-Youth and studies:...
, one of the new notables. Together with his entourage, Le Pen traversed France for the entire period and, helped by Mégret, employed an American-style campaign. Le Pen's presidential campaign was highly successful; no candidates came close to rival his ability to excite audiences at rallies and boost ratings at television appearances. Utilising a populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
tone, Le Pen presented himself as the representative of the people against the "gang of four" (RPR, UDF, PS, PCF), while the central theme of his campaign was "national preference". In the 1988 presidential election
French presidential election, 1988
Presidential elections were held in France on 24 April and 8 May 1988.In 1981, the Socialist Party leader, François Mitterrand, was elected President of France and the Left won the legislative election. However, in 1986, the Right regained a parliamentary majority. President Mitterrand was forced...
, Le Pen won an unprecedented 14.4% of the vote, double the votes from 1984.
While the snap 1988 legislative elections
French legislative election, 1988
French legislative elections took place on 5 June and 12 June 1988 to elect the 9th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, one month after the re-election of François Mitterrand as President of France....
saw a return to two-ballot majority voting, the FN was also hurt by the limited campaign period and the depart of many notables. In the election the party retained its 9.8% support from the previous legislative election, but was reduced to a single seat in the National Assembly. Following some anti-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
comments made by Le Pen and the FN newspaper National Hebdo in the late 1980s, some valuable FN politicians left the party. Other quarrels soon also left the party without its remaining member of the National Assembly. In November 1988, General Secretary Jean-Pierre Stirbois, who, together with his wife Marie-France, had been instrumental in the FN's early electoral successes, died in a car accident, leaving Bruno Mégret as the unrivalled de facto FN deputy leader. The FN only got 5% in the 1988 cantonal elections
French cantonal elections, 1988
Cantonale elections to renew canton general councillors were held in France on 25 September and 2 October 1988. Abstention exploded to 50.9% in the first round and 53% in the runoff, likely due to the election being the third held that here after the presidential and legislative elections. The...
, while the RPR announced it would reject any alliance with the FN, now including at local level. In the 1989 European elections
European Parliament election, 1989 (France)
On 15 June 1989 the third direct elections to the European Parliament were held in the France. Six lists were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, an alliance of the Socialist Party and the PRG, the French Communist...
, the FN held on to its ten seats as it won 11.7% of the vote.
In the wake of FN electoral success, the immigration debate, growing concerns over Islamic fundamentalism, and the fatwa
The Satanic Verses controversy
The Satanic Verses controversy was the heated and sometimes violent Muslim reaction to the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. Many Muslims accused Rushdie of blasphemy or unbelief and in 1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie...
against Salman Rushdie by Ayatollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini
Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...
, the 1989 affaire du foulard was the first major test of the relations between the values of the French Republic and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Following the event, surveys found that French public opinion was largely negative towards Islam. In a 1989 legislative by-election in Dreux, FN candidate Marie-France Stirbois—campaigning on an anti-Islamism
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
platform—returned a symbolic FN presence to the National Assembly. By the early 1990s, some mainstream politicians began employing anti-immigration rhetoric. In the first round of the 1993 legislative elections
French legislative election, 1993
French legislative elections took place on 21 and 28 March 1993 to elect the 10th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.Since 1988, President François Mitterrand and his Socialist cabinets had relied on a relative parliamentary majority. Without the support of the Communists, Prime minister...
the FN soared to 12.7% of the overall vote, but did not win a single seat due to the nature of the electoral system (if the election had used proportional representation, it would have won 64 seats). In the 1995 presidential election
French presidential election, 1995
Presidential elections took place in France on 23 April and 7 May 1995, to elect the fifth president of the Fifth Republic.The incumbent Socialist president, François Mitterrand, did not stand for a third term. He was 78, had cancer, and his party had lost the previous legislative election in a...
, Le Pen rose slightly to 15% of the vote.
1995 municipal elections
The FN won an absolute majority (and thus the mayorship) in three cities in the 1995 municipal electionsFrench municipal elections, 1995
Municipal elections were held in France on 11 and 18 June 1995, more or less than one month after Jacques Chirac's election.The far-right National Front elected 3 mayors in Provence: Toulon, Orange, Marignane. It was the first time the far-right led an executive alone. In other races, Jean Tiberi ...
, namely Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
, Marignane
Marignane
Marignane is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southern France.-Geography:It is a component of the metropolitan Marseille Provence Métropole, and the largest suburb of the city of Marseille...
, and Orange
Orange, Vaucluse
Orange is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It has a primarily agricultural economy...
. (It had won a mayorship only once before, in the small town of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard in 1989.) Le Pen then declared that his party would implement its "national preference" policy, with the risk of provoking the central government and being at odds with the laws of the Republic. The FN pursued interventionist policies with regards to the new cultural complexion of their towns by directly influencing artistic events, cinema schedules, and library holdings, as well as cutting or halting subsidies for multicultural associations. The party won Vitrolles
Vitrolles, Bouches-du-Rhône
Vitrolles is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southern France. It is the largest suburb of the city of Aix-en-Provence and is adjacent to its southwest side.-Population:-Administration:...
, its fourth town, in a 1997 by-election, where similar policies were pursued. Vitrolles' new mayor Catherine Mégret (who ran in place of her husband Bruno) went further in one significant measure, introducing a special 5,000 franc
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
allowance for babies born to at least one parent of French (or EU) nationality. The measure was ruled illegal by a court, also giving her a suspended prison sentence, a fine, and a two-year ban from public office.
Turmoil, split of MNR (1997–2002)
In the 1997 legislative electionsFrench legislative election, 1997
French legislative election took place on 25 May and 1 June 1997 to elect the 11th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. It was the consequence of President Jacques Chirac's decision to call the legislative election one year before the deadline....
the FN polled its best-ever result with 15.3% support in metropolitan France
Metropolitan France
Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
, confirming its position as the third most important political force in France. It also showed that the party had become established enough to compete without its leader, who decided not to run to focus on the 2002 presidential election. Although it won only one seat in the National Assembly, it advanced to the second round in 132 constituencies. Nonetheless, the FN was arguably more influential now than it had been in 1986 with its 35 seats. While Bruno Mégret and Bruno Gollnisch
Bruno Gollnisch
Bruno Gollnisch is a French academic and politician, a member of the National Front far-right party, and a member of the European Parliament. He was chairman of the European Parliamentary group 'Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty' in 2007, which was dissolved in November 2007 following the...
, in an unusual display of dissent, favoured tactical cooperation with a weakened centre-right following the left's victory, Le Pen rejected any such compromise. In the tenth FN national congress in 1997, Mégret stepped up his position in the party as its rising star and a potential leader following Le Pen. Le Pen however refused to designate Mégret as his successor elect, and instead made his wife Jany the leader of the FN list for the upcoming European election.
Mégret and his faction left the FN in January 1999 and founded the National Republican Movement
National Republican Movement
The National Republican Movement is a French nationalist political party, created by Bruno Mégret with former Club de l'Horloge alumni, Yvan Blot and Jean-Yves Le Gallou, as a split from Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front on January 24, 1999.Although political observers have considered the MNR to...
(MNR), effectively splitting the FN in half at most levels. Many of those who joined the new MNR had joined the FN in mid-1980s, in part from the Nouvelle Droite, with a vision of building bridges to the parliamentary right. Many had also been particularly influential in intellectualising the FN's policies on immigration, identity and "national preference", and, following the split, Le Pen denounced them as "extremist" and "racist". Support for the parties was almost equal in the 1999 European election
European Parliament election, 1999 (France)
On 13 June 1999 the fifth direct elections to the European Parliament were held in the France. Once again, abstention was very high for this type of election- only 47% of eligible voters voted...
, as the FN polled its lowest national score since 1984 with just 5.7%, and the MNR won 3.3%. The effects of the split, and competition from more moderate nationalists, had left their combined support lower than the FN result in 1984.
2002 presidential election
For the 2002 presidential electionFrench presidential election, 2002
The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of international attention because of Le Pen's unexpected appearance in...
, opinion polls had predicted a run-off between incumbent President Chirac and PS candidate Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002. He was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995...
. The shock was thus great when Le Pen unexpectedly beat Jospin (with 0.7%) in the first round. This resulted in the first presidential run-off since 1969 without a leftist candidate, and the first ever with a candidate of the far-right. To Le Pen's advantage, the election campaign had increasingly focused on law and order issues, helped by media attention on a number of violent incidents. Jospin had also been weakened due to the competition between an exceptional number of leftist parties. Nevertheless, Chirac did not even have to campaign in the second round, as widespread anti-Le Pen protests from the media and public opinion culminated on May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
, with an estimated 1.5 million demonstrators across France. Chirac also refused to debate with Le Pen, and the traditional televised debate was cancelled. In the end, Chirac won the presidential run-off with an unprecedented 82.2% of the vote and with 71% of his votes—according to polls—cast simply "to block Le Pen." Following the presidential election, the main centre-right parties merged to form the broad-based Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
(UMP). The FN failed to hold on to Le Pen's support for the 2002 legislative elections
French legislative election, 2002
-12th Assembly by Parliamentary Group:...
, in which it got 11.3% of the vote. It nevertheless outpolled Mégret's MNR, which won a mere 1.1% support, even though it had fielded the same amount of candidates.
Late 2000s decline
French regional elections, 2004
Regional elections in were held in France on 21 and 28 March 2004. At stake were the presidencies of each of France's 26 regions which, although they do not have legislative powers, manage sizeable budgets...
, in part in an attempt to reduce the FN's influence in regional councils. The FN won 15.1% of the vote in metropolitan France, almost the same as in 1998, but its number of councillors was almost halved due to the new electoral system. For the 2004 European elections
European Parliament election, 2004 (France)
Elections to the European Parliament were held in France on 13 June 2004. The opposition Socialist Party made substantial gains, although this was mainly at the expense of minor parties...
too, a new system less favourable to the FN had been introduced. The party regained some of its strength from 1999, earning 9.8% of the vote and seven seats.
For the 2007 presidential election
French presidential election, 2007
The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy...
, Le Pen and Mégret had agreed to join forces. Le Pen came fourth in the election with 11% of the vote, and the party won no seats in the legislative election of the same year
French legislative election, 2007
The French legislative elections took place on 10 June and 17 June 2007 to elect the 13th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a few weeks after the French presidential election run-off on 6 May. 7,639 candidates stood for 577 seats, including France's overseas possessions...
. The party's 4.3% support was the lowest score since the 1981 election and only one candidate, Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen is a French politician, a lawyer by profession and the president of the Front National since 16 January 2011...
in Pas de Calais, reached the runoff (where she was defeated by the socialist incumbent). These electoral defeats partly accounted for the party's financial problems. Le Pen announced the sale of the FN headquarters in Saint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.Like other communes of the Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine or Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of the wealthiest cities in France, ranked 22nd out of the 36500 in...
, Le Paquebot, as well as of his personal armoured car. Twenty permanent employees of the FN were also dismissed in 2008. In the 2010 regional elections
French regional elections, 2010
Regional elections were held in France on 14 and 21 March 2010. At stake were the presidencies of each of France's 26 régions, which, though they do not have legislative autonomy, manage sizable budgets....
the FN appeared to have re-emerged on the political scene after surprisingly winning almost 12% of the overall vote and 118 seats.
Marine Le Pen (2011–present)
Jean-Marie Le Pen announced in September 2008 that he would retire as FN president in 2010. Le Pen's daughter Marine Le Pen and FN executive vice-president Bruno Gollnisch campaigned for the presidency to succeed Le Pen, with Marine's candidacy backed by her father. On 15 January 2011, it was announced that Marine Le Pen had received the two-thirds vote needed to become the new leader of the FN. She sought to transform the FN into a mainstream party by softening its xenophobic image. Opinion polls showed the party's popularity increase under Marine Le Pen, and in the 2011 cantonal electionsFrench cantonal elections, 2011
Cantonal elections to elect half the membership of the general councils of France's 100 departments were held on 20 and 27 March 2011.-Electoral system:...
the party won 15% of the overall vote (up from 4.5% in 2008). However, due to the French electoral system, the party only won 2 of the 2,026 seats up for election.
For the upcoming 2012 presidential election
French presidential election, 2012
The 2012 French presidential election is the next presidential election, to be held on 22 April and 6 May 2012, the latter being used for a run-off if necessary...
, opinion polls have shown Marine Le Pen as a serious challenger, with a few polls even suggesting that she could win the first round of the election.
Political profile
The party's ideology has been broadly described by scholars such as Shields as authoritarianAuthoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
, nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, and populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
. The FN has changed considerably since its foundation, as it has pursued the principles of modernisation and pragmatism, adapting to the changing political climate. At the same time, its message has increasingly influenced mainstream political parties, although the FN too has moved somewhat closer towards the centre-right. While some have denounced its policies as "fascist", features that are integral to historical (and generic) fascism are absent in the party.
Law and order
In 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen campaigned on the law and orderLaw and order (politics)
In politics, law and order refers to demands for a strict criminal justice system, especially in relation to violent and property crime, through harsher criminal penalties...
policies of "zero tolerance
Zero tolerance
Zero tolerance imposes automatic punishment for infractions of a stated rule, with the intention of eliminating undesirable conduct. Zero-tolerance policies forbid persons in positions of authority from exercising discretion or changing punishments to fit the circumstances subjectively; they are...
", harsher sentencing, increased prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
capacity, as well as a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
on re-introducing the death penalty. In its 2001 program, the party linked the breakdown of law and order to immigration, deeming immigration a "mortal threat to civil peace in France."
Immigration
In more recent popular and even academic press, the party's program has often been reduced to the single issue of immigration. The party opposes immigration, particularly Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
immigration from North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
, West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
, and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. In a standardised pamphlet delivered to all French electors in the 1995 presidential election
French presidential election, 1995
Presidential elections took place in France on 23 April and 7 May 1995, to elect the fifth president of the Fifth Republic.The incumbent Socialist president, François Mitterrand, did not stand for a third term. He was 78, had cancer, and his party had lost the previous legislative election in a...
, Le Pen proposed to send "three million non-Europeans" out of France by "humane and dignified means." Over the years, and especially since the 1999 split, the FN has cultivated a more moderate image on issues of immigration and Islam, at least compared to some of the proposals of Mégret's MNR or Philippe de Villiers
Philippe de Villiers
Viscount Philippe Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon, known as Philippe de Villiers, born on 25 March 1949, is a French politician. He was the Mouvement pour la France nominee for the French presidential election of 2007. He received 2.23% of the vote, putting him in sixth place. As only the top...
's Movement for France
Movement for France
The Movement for France , abbreviated to MPF, is a French conservative and eurosceptic political party, founded on 20 November 1994, with a marked regional stronghold in the Vendée. It is led by Philippe de Villiers, once communications minister under Jacques Chirac.The party is considered...
. It does no longer expressly support the systematic repatriation of legal immigrants, although it supports the deportation of illegal, criminal, and unemployed immigrants.
Since becoming leader of the party in 2011, Marine Le Pen has focused mostly on the perceived threat against the secular value system
Laïcité
French secularism, in French, laïcité is a concept denoting the absence of religious involvement in government affairs as well as absence of government involvement in religious affairs. French secularism has a long history but the current regime is based on the 1905 French law on the Separation of...
of the French Republic. She has criticised Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s, for what she sees as their intents to impose their own values on the country. Following the rebellions in several Arab countries
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
, she has been active in campaigning on halting the migration to Europe of Tunisian and Libyan immigrants.
Economy
At the end of the 1970s, Le Pen refurbished his party's appeal, by breaking away from the anticapitalist heritage of Poujadism. He instead made an unambigous commitment to popular capitalismCapitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, and started espousing an extremely market liberal and antistatist program. Issues included lower taxes, to reduce state intervention, as well as to dissolve the bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
. Some scholars have even considered that the FN's 1978 program may be regarded as "Reaganite
Reaganomics
Reaganomics refers to the economic policies promoted by the U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s, also known as supply-side economics and called trickle-down economics, particularly by critics...
before Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
".
The party's economic policy shifted from the 1980s to the 1990s from neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
to protectionism
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
. This should be seen within the framework of a changed international environment, from a battle between the Free World
Free World
The Free World is a Cold War-era term often used to describe states not under the rule of the Soviet Union, its Eastern European allies, China, Vietnam, Cuba, and other communist nations. The term often referred to states such as the United States, Canada, and Western European states such as the...
and communism, to one between the nation and the globalising project. During the 1980s, Le Pen complained about the rising number of "social parasites", and called for deregulation, tax cuts, and the phasing-out of the welfare state. As the party gained growing support from the economically vulnerable, it converted towards politics of social welfare and economic protectionism. This was part of its shift away from its former claim of being the "social, popular and national right" to its claim of being "neither right nor left – French!" Increasingly, the party's program became an uneasy amalgam of free market and welfarist policies.
Under her leadership, Marine Le Pen has been more clear in her support for protectionism, while she has criticised globalism
Globalism
Globalism can have at least two different and opposing meanings. One meaning is the attitude or policy of placing the interests of the entire world above those of individual nations...
and capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
. She has been a proponent of letting the government take care of health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, transportation, banking and energy.
Foreign policy
From the 1980s to the 1990s, the party's policy shifted from favouring the European UnionEuropean Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
to turning against it. In 2002 Le Pen campaigned on pulling France out of the EU and re-introducing the franc as national currency. In the early 2000s the party denounced the Schengen
Schengen Agreement
The Schengen Agreement is a treaty signed on 14 June 1985 near the town of Schengen in Luxembourg, between five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community. It was supplemented by the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement 5 years later...
, Maastricht
Maastricht Treaty
The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 by the members of the European Community in Maastricht, Netherlands. On 9–10 December 1991, the same city hosted the European Council which drafted the treaty...
, and Amsterdam treaties as foundations for "a supranational entity spelling the end of France." In 2004, the party critisised the EU as "the last stage on the road to world government
World government
World government is the notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity. Its modern conception is rooted in European history, particularly in the philosophy of ancient Greece, in the political formation of the Roman Empire, and in the subsequent struggle between secular authority,...
," likening it to a "puppet of the New World Order." It also proposed breaking all institutional ties back to the Treaty of Rome
Treaty of Rome
The Treaty of Rome, officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, was an international agreement that led to the founding of the European Economic Community on 1 January 1958. It was signed on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany...
, while it returned to supporting a common European currency to rival the United States dollar
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
. Further, it rejected the possible accession of Turkey to the EU
Accession of Turkey to the European Union
Turkey's application to accede to the European Union was made on 14 April 1987. Turkey has been an associate member of the European Union and its predecessors since 1963...
. The FN was also one of several parties that backed France's 2005 rejection of the Treaty for a European Constitution. In other issues, Le Pen opposed the invasions of Iraq, led by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, both in the 1991 Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
and the 2003 Iraq War. Le Pen visited Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
in 1990, and subsequently considered him a friend.
Marine Le Pen has advocated that France should leave the euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
(along with Spain, Greece and Portugal). She also wants to reintroduce customs borders
Customs area
A customs area is an area designated for storage of commercial goods that have not yet cleared customs. It is surrounded by a customs border...
and has campaigned against allowing dual citizenship. During both the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis
2010–2011 Ivorian crisis
The 2010–11 Ivorian crisis was a political crisis in Côte d'Ivoire which began after Laurent Gbagbo, the President of Côte d'Ivoire since 2000, was proclaimed the winner of the Ivorian election of 2010, the first election in the country in 10 years...
and the 2011 Libyan civil war
2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...
, she opposed the French military involvements. She has recast the party's image towards Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, after affirming Israel's right to secure itself from terrorism, and criticising the leadership of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
.
Issues of revisionism
The FN has historically preserved its affinities with many of the traditional values of Vichy FranceVichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
, including the motto Travail, famille, patrie
Travail, famille, patrie
Travail, famille, patrie was the motto of the French State during World War II. It replaced the republican motto, Liberté, égalité, fraternité of the Third French Republic.-Institution:...
. In line with this, some FN party officials, notably Jean-Marie Le Pen and Bruno Gollnisch, have occasionally espoused what has been seen as latent anti-Semitism in the party, including minimisation of the Holocaust and the Occupation. In 2005, Jean-Marie Le Pen considered in the far-right newspaper Rivarol that the German occupation of France "was not particularly inhumane even if there were some blunders," and in 1987 referred to the Nazi gas chambers as "a point of detail of the Second World War." He has repeated the latter claim several times. Also in 2005, Bruno Gollnisch cast doubt on the findings of the post-war tribunals and the official version of the Holocaust. Both received fines for these incidents. The current leader of the party, Marine Le Pen, publicly rebuked Gollnisch for his remarks, and distanced herself for a time from the party machine in protest against her father's comment.
International relations
The FN has been part of several groups in the European ParliamentEuropean Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
. The first group it helped co-establish was the European Right
European Right (1984–1989)
The Group of the European Right was a political group of far-right orientation that operated in the European Parliament between 1984 and 1989.-History:...
after the 1984 election, which also consisted of the Italian Social Movement
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement , and later the Italian Social Movement–National Right , was a neo-fascist and post-fascist political party in Italy. Formed in 1946 by supporters of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the party became the fourth largest party in Italy by the early 1960s...
(MSI), its early inspiration, and the Greek National Political Union
National Political Union
The National Political Union, better known as EPEN was a Greek far-right political party. The party was founded on January 30, 1984 by jailed former junta leader Georgios Papadopoulos. It participated in the 1985 general election...
. Following the 1989 election, it teamed up with the German Republicans and the Belgian Vlaams Blok
Vlaams Blok
The Vlaams Blok was a Belgian far-right and secessionist political party with an anti-immigration platform. Its ideologies embraced Flemish nationalism, calling for the independence of Flanders. From its creation in 1978, it was the most notable militant right wing of the Flemish movement. Vlaams...
in a new European Right
European Right (1989–1994)
The Technical Group of the European Right was a Far-Right political group with seats in the European Parliament between 1989 and 1994.-History:Following the 1989 elections, the previous far-right Group lost its Ulster Unionist and Greek EPEN MEPs...
group, while the MSI left due to the Germans' arrival. As the MSI evolved into the National Alliance
National Alliance (Italy)
National Alliance was a conservative political party in Italy.Gianfranco Fini was the leader of the party since its foundation in 1995, however he stepped down in 2008 after being elected to the nominally non-partisan post of President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was succeeded by...
, it chose to distance itself from the FN. From 1999 to 2001, the FN was a member of the Technical Group of Independents
Technical Group of Independents (1999–2001)
The Technical Group of Independent Members was a heterogeneous political group with seats in the European Parliament between 1999 and 2001. Unlike other political groups of the European Parliament, it did not have a coherent political complexion. Its existence prompted a five-year examination of...
. In 2007, it was part of the short-lived Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty
Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty
thumb|right|Group logoIdentity, Tradition, Sovereignty was a political group in the European Parliament composed of 23 members from European parties variously described as right-wing and nationalist...
group. Currently (and between the mentioned groups), the party sits among the non-affiliated Non-Inscrits
Non-Inscrits
Non-Inscrits are Members of the European Parliament who do not sit in one of the recognized political groups....
.
The party has also been active in establishing extra-parliamentary confederations. During the FN's 1997 national congress, the FN established the loose EuroNat
Euronat
EuroNat is an organisation of European nationalist political parties, formed initially at the congress of the French National Front in Strasbourg on 30 March 1997. It had a loose organisational structure, and was in practice based on coordination by activities of the FN...
group, which consisted of a variety of European right-wing parties. Having failed to cooperate in the European Parliament, Le Pen sought in the mid-1990s to initiate contacts with other far-right parties, including from non-EU countries. The FN drew most support in Central
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, and Le Pen even visited the Turkish Welfare Party
Welfare Party
The Welfare Party was an Islamist political party in Turkey. It was founded by Ali Türkmen, Ahmet Tekdal and Necmettin Erbakan in Ankara in 1983 as heir to two earlier parties, Milli Nizam Partisi and Milli Selamet Partisi , which were banned from politics...
. The significant Freedom Party of Austria
Freedom Party of Austria
The Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had...
(FPÖ) refused to join the efforts, as Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Austrian Freedom Party and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Austria , a breakaway party from the FPÖ.Haider was controversial within Austria and abroad for comments...
sought to distance himself from Le Pen, and later attempted to build a separate group. Since 2009, the FN has been part of the Alliance of European National Movements
Alliance of European National Movements
The Alliance of European National Movements was formed in Budapest on 24 October 2009 by a number of nationalist and far-right parties from countries in Europe...
. Along with some other European parties, the FN in 2010 visited Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
's Issuikai movement and the Yasukuni Shrine
Yasukuni Shrine
is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is dedicated to the soldiers and others who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan. Currently, its Symbolic Registry of Divinities lists the names of over 2,466,000 enshrined men and women whose lives were dedicated to the service of...
. At a conference in 2011, the two new leaders of the FN and the FPÖ announced deeper cooperation between their parties.
General secretaries
- Jean-Pierre StirboisJean-Pierre StirboisJean-Pierre Stirbois was a French far-right politician, husband of Marie-France Stirbois. He has been associated with the first electoral breakthrough of the National Front, in Dreux in 1983....
(1981–1988) - Carl LangCarl LangCarl Lang is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the north-west of France. He was member of the National Front from 1978 to 2008; he is currently president and co-founder of the Party of France...
(1988–1995) - Bruno GollnischBruno GollnischBruno Gollnisch is a French academic and politician, a member of the National Front far-right party, and a member of the European Parliament. He was chairman of the European Parliamentary group 'Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty' in 2007, which was dissolved in November 2007 following the...
(1995–2005) - Louis AliotLouis AliotBorn on 4 September 1969 at Ax-les-Thermes , Louis Aliot is a French politician, a lawyer by profession and a vice-president of the Front National since 16 January 2011...
(2005–2010) - Jean-François Jalkh (2010–present)
Election results
The National Front was a marginal party from 1973, the first election it participated in, until its breakthrough in the 1984 European elections, where it won 11% of the vote and ten MEPs. Following this election, the party's support mostly ranged from around 10 to 15%, although it saw a drop to around 5% in some late 2000s elections. Since 2010, the party's support seems to have increased towards its former heights. The party managed to advance to the final round of the presidential elections in 2002, although it failed to attract much more support after the initial first round vote.National Assembly
| Election year | # of 1st round votes | % of 1st round vote | # of 2nd round votes | % of 2nd round vote | # of seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 French legislative election, 1973 French legislative elections took place on 4 and 11 March 1973 to elect the 5th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.In order to end the May 1968 crisis, President Charles de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and his party, the Gaullist Party Union of Democrats for the Republic , obtained... |
108,616 | 0.5% | — | — | 0 |
| 1978 French legislative election, 1978 The French legislative elections took place on 12 March and 19 March 1978 to elect the 6th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.On 2 April 1974 President Georges Pompidou died. The non-Gaullist center-right leader Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was elected to succeed him... |
82,743 | 0.3% | — | — | 0 |
| 1981 French legislative election, 1981 French legislative elections took place on 14 June and 21 June 1981 to elect the 7th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.On 10 May 1981 François Mitterrand was elected President of France. He became the first Socialist to win this post under universal suffrage... |
44,414 | 0.2% | — | — | 0 |
| 1986 French legislative election, 1986 The French legislative elections took place on 16 March 1986 to elect the 8th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. Contrary to other legislative elections of the Fifth Republic, the electoral system used was that of Party-list proportional representation.Since the 1981 election of François... |
2,699,307 | 9.8% | — | — | 35 |
| 1988 French legislative election, 1988 French legislative elections took place on 5 June and 12 June 1988 to elect the 9th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, one month after the re-election of François Mitterrand as President of France.... |
2,353,466 | 9.8% | — | — | 1 |
| 1993 French legislative election, 1993 French legislative elections took place on 21 and 28 March 1993 to elect the 10th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.Since 1988, President François Mitterrand and his Socialist cabinets had relied on a relative parliamentary majority. Without the support of the Communists, Prime minister... |
3,155,702 | 12.7% | 1,168,143 | 5.8% | 0 |
| 1997 French legislative election, 1997 French legislative election took place on 25 May and 1 June 1997 to elect the 11th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. It was the consequence of President Jacques Chirac's decision to call the legislative election one year before the deadline.... |
3,791,063 | 15.3% | 1,435,186 | 5.7% | 1 |
| 2002 French legislative election, 2002 -12th Assembly by Parliamentary Group:... |
2,873,390 | 11.1% | 393,205 | 1.9% | 0 |
| 2007 French legislative election, 2007 The French legislative elections took place on 10 June and 17 June 2007 to elect the 13th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a few weeks after the French presidential election run-off on 6 May. 7,639 candidates stood for 577 seats, including France's overseas possessions... |
1,116,136 | 4.3% | 17,107 | 0.1% | 0 |
Presidential
| Election year | Candidate | # of 1st round votes | % of 1st round vote | # of 2nd round votes | % of 2nd round vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 French presidential election, 1974 Presidential elections were held in :France in 1974, following the death of President Georges Pompidou. They went to a second round, and were won by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing by a margin of 1.6%... |
Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than... |
190,921 | 0.8% | — | — |
| 1981 French presidential election, 1981 The French presidential election of 1981 took place on 10 May 1981, giving the presidency of France to François Mitterrand, the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic.... |
— | — | — | — | — |
| 1988 French presidential election, 1988 Presidential elections were held in France on 24 April and 8 May 1988.In 1981, the Socialist Party leader, François Mitterrand, was elected President of France and the Left won the legislative election. However, in 1986, the Right regained a parliamentary majority. President Mitterrand was forced... |
Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than... |
4,376,742 | 14.4% | — | — |
| 1995 French presidential election, 1995 Presidential elections took place in France on 23 April and 7 May 1995, to elect the fifth president of the Fifth Republic.The incumbent Socialist president, François Mitterrand, did not stand for a third term. He was 78, had cancer, and his party had lost the previous legislative election in a... |
Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than... |
4,570,838 | 15.0% | — | — |
| 2002 French presidential election, 2002 The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of international attention because of Le Pen's unexpected appearance in... |
Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than... |
4,804,713 | 16.9% | 5,525,032 | 17.8% |
| 2007 French presidential election, 2007 The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy... |
Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than... |
3,834,530 | 10.4% | — | — |
Regional councils
| Election year | # of 1st round votes | % of 1st round vote | # of 2nd round votes | % of 2nd round vote | # of seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 French regional elections, 1986 Regional elections were held in France on 16 March 1986. At stake were the presidencies of each of France's 26 régions, which, though they don't have legislative autonomy, manage sizeable budgets. The parliamentary right, led by the conservative Rally for the Republic and the centre-right Union for... |
2,654,390 | 9.7% | — | — | 137 |
| 1992 French regional elections, 1992 Regional elections were held in France on 22 March 1992. At stake were the presidencies of each of France's 26 régions, which, though they don't have legislative autonomy, manage sizeable budgets. The parliamentary right, led by the conservative Rally for the Republic and the centre-right Union for... |
3,396,141 | 13.9% | — | — | 239 |
| 1998 French regional elections, 1998 Regional elections were held in France on 15 March 1998. At stake were the presidencies of each of France's 26 régions, which, though they don't have legislative autonomy, manage sizeable budgets... |
3,270,118 | 15.3% | — | — | 275 |
| 2004 French regional elections, 2004 Regional elections in were held in France on 21 and 28 March 2004. At stake were the presidencies of each of France's 26 regions which, although they do not have legislative powers, manage sizeable budgets... |
3,564,064 | 14.7% | 3,200,194 | 12.4% | 156 |
| 2010 French regional elections, 2010 Regional elections were held in France on 14 and 21 March 2010. At stake were the presidencies of each of France's 26 régions, which, though they do not have legislative autonomy, manage sizable budgets.... |
2,223,800 | 11.4% | 1,943,307 | 9.2% | 118 |
European Parliament
| Election year | # of total votes | % of overall vote | # of seats won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 European Parliament election, 1984 (France) In 1984 the second direct elections to the European Parliament were held in France. Four parties were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party, and the Front National... |
2,210,334 | 11.0% | 10 |
| 1989 European Parliament election, 1989 (France) On 15 June 1989 the third direct elections to the European Parliament were held in the France. Six lists were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, an alliance of the Socialist Party and the PRG, the French Communist... |
2,129,668 | 11.7% | 10 |
| 1994 European Parliament election, 1994 (France) On 12 June 1994 the fourth direct elections to the European Parliament were held in the France. Six lists were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre-right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the Socialist Party, the Left Radical Party, the French Communist... |
2,050,086 | 10.5% | 11 |
| 1999 European Parliament election, 1999 (France) On 13 June 1999 the fifth direct elections to the European Parliament were held in the France. Once again, abstention was very high for this type of election- only 47% of eligible voters voted... |
1,005,113 | 5.7% | 5 |
| 2004 European Parliament election, 2004 (France) Elections to the European Parliament were held in France on 13 June 2004. The opposition Socialist Party made substantial gains, although this was mainly at the expense of minor parties... |
1,684,792 | 9.8% | 7 |
| 2009 European Parliament election, 2009 (France) European elections to elect 72 French Members of the European Parliament were held on Sunday 7 June 2009.Due to the entry of Romania and Bulgaria in the European Union in 2007, the number of seats allocated to France was revised from 78 seats to 72 seats, a loss of 6 seats... |
1,091,691 | 6.3% | 3 |