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National Rally

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Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Redirect Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox political party

The National Rally (Template:Langx, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, RN), known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 (Template:Langx, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, FN), is a French far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and nationalist.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It is the single largest parliamentary opposition party in the National Assembly since 2022. It opposes immigration, advocating significant cuts to legal immigration, protection of French identity,Template:Sfn and stricter control of illegal immigration. The party advocates a "more balanced" and "independent" French foreign policy, opposing French military intervention in Africa while supporting France leaving NATO's integrated command. It also supports reform of the European Union (EU), economic interventionism, protectionism, and zero tolerance for breaches of law and order.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The party was founded in 1972 by the Ordre Nouveau to be the legitimate political vehicle for the far-right movement.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Jean-Marie Le Pen was its founder and leader until his resignation in 2011. While its influence was marginal until 1984, the party's role as a nationalist electoral force has grown considerably.Template:Sfn It has put forward a candidate at every presidential election but one since 1974. In the 2002 presidential election, Jean-Marie Le Pen advanced to the second round but finished a distant second in the runoff to Jacques Chirac.Template:Sfn His daughter Marine Le Pen was elected to succeed him as party leader in 2012. Jordan Bardella assumed the leadership in 2022.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The party has seen an increase in its popularity and acceptance in French society in recent years. It has been accused of promoting xenophobia and antisemitism.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> While her father was nicknamed the "Devil of the Republic" by mainstream media and sparked outrage for hate speech, including Holocaust denial and Islamophobia, Marine Le Pen pursued a policy of "de-demonisation", trying to frame the party as being neither right nor left.<ref>Softening image:

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Devil of the Republic:


Holocaust denial:

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Islamophobia:

  • Template:Cite news</ref> She endeavoured to extract it from its far-right roots, as well as censuring controversial members like her father, who was suspended and then expelled from the party in 2015.<ref>Jean-Marie suspension and expulsion:
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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Following her election as the leader of the party in 2011, the popularity of the FN grew.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By 2015, the FN had established itself as a major political party in France.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sources traditionally label the party as far-right.<ref name="National Rally far-right">Abridged list of reliable sources that refer to the National Rally as far-right:

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At the FN congress of 2018, Marine Le Pen proposed renaming the party Rassemblement National (National Rally),<ref name="Le Monde, March 2018"/> and this was confirmed by a ballot of party members.<ref name="Le Monde, June 2018"/> Formerly strongly Eurosceptic, the National Rally changed policies in 2019, deciding to campaign for a reform of the EU rather than leaving it and to keep the euro as the main currency of France (together with the CFP franc for some collectivities).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2021, Le Pen announced that she wanted to remain in the Schengen Area, but to reserve free movement to nationals of a European Economic Area country, excluding residents of and visitors from another Schengen country.<ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Le Pen reached the second round of the 2017 presidential election, receiving 33.9% of the votes in the run-off and losing to Emmanuel Macron. Again in the 2022 election, she lost to Macron in the run-off, receiving 41.45% of the votes. In the 2022 parliamentary elections, the National Rally achieved a significant increase in the number of its MPs in the National Assembly, from 7 to 89 seats. In June 2024, the party won the European Parliament elections in a landslide with 31.4% of the votes. This caused Macron to announce a snap election. Later that month, an RN-led right-wing coalition topped the first round of the snap French legislative election with a record 33.2% of the votes. On 7 July, the RN also won the popular vote (37.06%) in the second round of the snap election, but only won the third highest number of seats.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On 31 March 2025, 25 National Rally members (including Le Pen, former MEPs, and their assistants) were convicted of embezzlement for using European Parliament funds to fund National Rally staff. The sentences for several MEPs, including Le Pen, included bans on running for political office.<ref name="Gdn31325" /><ref name="TelegraphConviction">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="France24Conviction">Template:Cite news</ref>

HistoryEdit

BackgroundEdit

The party's ideological roots can be traced to both Poujadism, a populist, small business tax protest movement founded in 1953 by Pierre Poujade and on right-wing dismay over the decision by French President Charles de Gaulle to abandon his promise of holding on to the colony of French Algeria, (many {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, including Le Pen, were part of an inner circle of returned servicemen known as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn During the 1965 presidential election, Le Pen unsuccessfully attempted to consolidate the right-wing vote around presidential candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour.Template:Sfn Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, the French far-right consisted mainly of small, extreme movements such as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (GUD), and the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (ON).Template:Sfn

Espousing France's Catholic and monarchist traditions, one of the primary progenitors of the ideology generally promoted by FN was the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, founded at the end of the 19th 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.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Early yearsEdit

Foundation (1972–1973)Edit

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While Ordre Nouveau 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 elections.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The party was launched on 5 October 1972 under the name National Front for French Unity (Front national pour l'unité française), or Front National.Template:Sfn In order to create a broad movement, ON sought to model the new party on the more established Italian Social Movement (MSI), which at the time appeared to establish a broad coalition of the Italian hard right. The FN adopted a French version of the MSI tricolour flame as its logo.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn ON wanted to unite the various French far-right currents, and brought together "nationals" of Le Pen's group and Roger Holeindre's Party of French Unity; "nationalists" from Pierre Bousquet's Militant movement or François Brigneau's and Alain Robert's Ordre Nouveau; the anti-Gaullist Georges Bidault's Justice and Liberty movement; as well as former Poujadists, Algerian War veterans, and some monarchists, among others.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 in the far-right.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The National Front fared poorly in the 1973 legislative elections, receiving 0.5% of the national vote, although Le Pen won 5% in his Paris constituency.Template:Sfn In 1973, the party created a youth movement, the Front national de la jeunesse (National Front of Youth; FNJ). The rhetoric used in the campaign stressed old, far-right themes and was largely uninspiring to the electorate at the time.Template:Sfn Otherwise, its official program at this point was relatively moderate, differing little from the mainstream right's.Template:Sfn Le Pen sought the "total fusion" of the currents in the party, and warned against "crude activism."Template:Sfn The FNJ were banned from the party later that year.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The move towards the mainstream cost it many leading members and much of its militant base.Template:Sfn

In the 1974 presidential election, Le Pen failed to find a mobilising theme for his campaign,Template:Sfn since many of its platform's major issues, such as anti-communism, were shared by most of the mainstream right.Template:Sfn 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."Template:Sfn Despite being the only nationalist candidate, he failed to gain the support of the whole of the far-right, as the various groups either rallied behind other candidates or called for voter abstention.Template:Sfn The campaign further lost ground when the Revolutionary Communist League made public a report of Le Pen's alleged involvement in torture during his time in Algeria.Template:Sfn In his first participation in a presidential election, Le Pen won only 0.8% of the national vote.Template:Sfn

FN–PFN rivalry (1973–1981)Edit

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).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Their competition weakened both parties throughout the 1970s.Template:Sfn Along with the growing influence of François Duprat and his "revolutionary nationalists", the FN gained several new groups of supporters in the late 1970s and early 1980s: Jean-Pierre Stirbois (1977) and his "solidarists", Bruno Gollnisch (1983), Bernard Antony (1984) and his Catholic fundamentalists, as well as Jean-Yves Le Gallou (1985) and the Nouvelle Droite.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Following the death of Duprat in a bomb attack in 1978, 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.Template:Sfn A radical group split off in 1980 and founded the French Nationalist Party, dismissing the FN as becoming "too Zionist" with Le Pen being a "puppet of the Jews."Template:Sfn The far right was marginalised altogether in the 1978 legislative elections, although the PFN came out better off.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In the first election for the European Parliament in 1979, the PFN became part of an attempt to build a "Euro-Right" alliance of the continent's far-right parties, and was in the end the only one of the two that contested the election.Template:Sfn It fielded Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour as its primary candidate, while Le Pen called for voter abstention.Template:Sfn

For the 1981 presidential election, both Le Pen and Pascal Gauchon of the PFN declared their intentions to run.Template:Sfn However, an increased requirement regarding obtaining signatures of support from elected officials had been introduced for the election, which left both Le Pen and Gauchon unable to participate.Template:Refn

The election was won by François Mitterrand of the Socialist Party (PS), a results that brought the political left to national power for the first time in the Fifth Republic; Mitterrand immediately dissolved the National Assembly and called a snap legislative election.Template:Sfn With only three weeks to prepare its campaign, the FN fielded only a limited number of candidates and won only 0.2% of the national vote.Template:Sfn The PFN was even worse off, and the election marked the effective end of competition from the party.Template:Sfn The Socialists attained their best ever result with an absolute majority in the 1981 legislative election.Template:Sfn

The "socialist takeover" led to a radicalisation in centre-right, anti-communist, and anti-socialist voters.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Jean-Marie Le Pen's leadershipEdit

Electoral breakthrough (1982–1988)Edit

File:200109 Jean-Marie Le Pen 191.jpg
Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the National Front from 1972 to 2011

While the French party system had been dominated by polarisation and competition between the clear-cut ideological alternatives of two political blocs in the 1970s, the two blocs had largely moved towards the centre by the mid-1980s. This led many voters to perceive the blocs as more or less indistinguishable, particularly after the Socialists' "austerity turn" (tournant de la rigueur) of 1983,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in turn inducing them to seek out to new political alternatives.Template:Sfn 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."Template:Sfn In the 1983 municipal elections, the centre-right Rally for the Republic (RPR) and the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF) formed alliances with the FN in a number of towns.Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Subsequent by-elections kept media attention on the party, which was for the first time able to pose as a viable component of the broader right.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In a by-election in Dreux in October 1983, the FN won 17% of the vote.Template:Sfn With the choice of defeat to the political left or dealing with the FN, the local RPR and UDF agreed to form an alliance with the FN, causing a national sensation;Template:Sfn together, they won the second round with 55% of the vote.Template:Sfn The events in Dreux were a monumental turning point in the rise of the FN.Template:Sfn

Le Pen protested the "media boycott" against his party by sending letters to President Mitterrand in mid-1982.Template:Sfn Following an exchange of letters with Le Pen, Mitterrand instructed the heads of the main television channels to give equitable coverage to the FN.Template:Sfn 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 personally.Template:Sfn The next month, Le Pen was, for the first time, invited on a prime-time television interview programme, which he himself later deemed "the hour that changed everything".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In the June 1984 European elections, the FN won 11% of the vote and ten seats,Template:SfnTemplate:Refn in a contest that was considered to have a low level of importance by the public, which played to the party's advantage.Template:Sfn The FN, notably, made inroads in both right-wing and left-wing constituencies, and finished 2nd in a number of towns.Template:Sfn While many Socialists had arguably exploited the party in order to divide the right,Template:Sfn Mitterrand later conceded that he had underestimated Le Pen.Template:Sfn By July, 17% of opinion poll respondents held a positive opinion of the FN.Template:Sfn

By the early 1980s, the FN featured a mosaic of ideological tendencies and attracted figures who were previously resistant to the party.Template:Sfn The party managed to draw supporters from the mainstream right, including some high-profile defectors from the RPR, the UDF, and the National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP).Template:Sfn In the 1984 European elections, eleven of the 81 FN candidates came from these parties, while the party's list also included an Arab and a Jew - although in unwinnable positions.Template:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn The FN won 8.7% overall support in the 1985 cantonal elections, netting over 30% in some areas.Template:Sfn

For the 1986 legislative elections, the FN took advantage of the new, proportional representation systemTemplate:RefnTemplate:Sfn and won 9.8% of the vote and 35 seats in the National Assembly.Template:Sfn Many of these seats were filled by a new wave of "respectable" political operatives, notables, who had joined the party after its 1984 success.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The RPR won a majority with smaller, centre-right parties, and thus avoided the need to deal with the FN.Template:Sfn Although FN was unable to exercise any real political influence, the party could project an image of political legitimacy.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Several of its legislative proposals were controversial and had a socially reactionary and xenophobic character, among them attempts to restore the death penalty, expel foreigners who "proportionally committed more crimes than the French", restrict naturalisation, introduce a "national preference" for employment, impose taxes on the hiring of foreigners by French companies, and privatise Agence France-Presse.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.Template:Sfn In the regional elections held on the same day, FN won 137 seats, and gained representation in 21 of the 22 French regional councils.Template:Sfn The RPR depended on FN support to win presidencies in some regional councils, and the FN won vice-presidential posts in four regions.Template:Sfn

Consolidation (1988–1997)Edit

Le Pen's campaign for the presidential election unofficially began in the months following the 1986 election.Template:Sfn To promote his statesmanship credentials, he made trips to South East Asia, the United States, and Africa.Template:Sfn The management of the formal campaign, launched in April 1987, was entrusted to Bruno Mégret, one of the new notables.Template:Sfn With his entourage, Le Pen traversed France for the entire period and, helped by Mégret, employed an American-style campaign.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Using a populist tone, he presented himself as the representative of the people against the "gang of four" (RPR, UDF, PS, Communist Party), while the central theme of his campaign was "national preference".Template:Sfn In the 1988 presidential election, Le Pen won an unprecedented 14.4% of the vote,Template:Sfn and double the votes of 1984.Template:Sfn

In the snap 1988 legislative elections, the FN was hurt by the return two-ballot majority voting, by the limited campaign period, and by the departure of many notables.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Soon, other quarrels left the party without its remaining member of the National Assembly.Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The party only got 5% in the 1988 cantonal elections, while the RPR announced it would reject any alliance with the FN, a rejections that now included the local level.Template:Sfn

In the 1989 European elections, the FN held on to its ten seats, winning 11.7% of the vote.Template:Sfn

In the wake of FN's 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.Template:Sfn Following that success, surveys found that French public opinion was largely negative towards Islam.Template:Sfn In a 1989 legislative by-election in Dreux, FN candidate Marie-France Stirbois, campaigning mostly on an anti-Islamism platform, returned a symbolic FN presence to the National Assembly.Template:Sfn By the early 1990s, some mainstream politicians began also employing anti-immigration rhetoric.Template:Sfn 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.Template:RefnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In the 1995 presidential election, votes for Le Pen rose to 15% of the total.Template:Sfn

The FN won an absolute majority (and thus the mayorship) in three cities in the 1995 municipal elections: Toulon, Marignane, and Orange.Template:RefnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The FN's elected representatives 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.Template:Sfn The party won Vitrolles, its fourth town, in a 1997 by-election, where similar policies were subsequently pursued.Template:Sfn Vitrolles' new mayor Template:Ill, who ran in place of her husband Bruno,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The measure was ruled illegal by a court, which sentenced her to a suspended prison sentence, a fine, and a two-year ban from office.Template:Sfn

Turmoil and split of the MNR (1997–2002)Edit

File:Bruno Megret bordeaux.jpg
Bruno Mégret and his faction broke out from the FN to form the MNR party

In the 1997 legislative elections, the FN polled its best-ever result with 15.3% support in metropolitan France.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The result showed that the party had become established enough to compete without its leader, who had decided not to run, in order to focus on the 2002 presidential election.Template:Sfn Although it won only one seat in the National Assembly, in Toulon,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> it advanced to the second round in 132 constituencies.Template:Sfn The FN was arguably more influential at that time than it had been in 1986 with its 35 seats.Template:Sfn While Bruno Mégret and Bruno Gollnisch, favoured tactical cooperation with a weakened centre-right following the left's victory, Le Pen rejected any such "compromise."Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn<ref name="oxfn">Template:Cite book</ref> Many of those who joined the new MNR had joined the FN in the mid-1980s, in part from the Nouvelle Droite, with a vision of building bridges to the parliamentary right.Template:Sfn Many had also been particularly influential in intellectualising the FN's policies on immigration, identity, and "national preference". Following the split, Le Pen denounced them as "extremist" and "racist".Template:Sfn Support for the two 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%.Template:Sfn The effects of the split, and competition from more moderate nationalists, resulted in their combined support being lower than the FN result of 1984.Template:Sfn

Presidential run-off (2002)Edit

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Logo for Le Pen's 2002 presidential campaign

For the 2002 presidential election, opinion polls had predicted a run-off between incumbent President Chirac and Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin.<ref name=tel1 />Template:Sfn In a shock outcome, Le Pen outperformed Jospin (by 0.7%) in the 1st round, placing second and advancing to the runoff.Template:Sfn This resulted in the first presidential run-off since 1969 without a leftist candidate and the first ever with a candidate from the far-right.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Jospin had also been weakened due to the competition between an exceptional number of leftist parties.Template:Sfn 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 in a demonstration of 1.5 million participants across France.Template:Sfn Chirac also refused to debate with Le Pen, and the traditional televised debate was cancelled.Template:Sfn In the end, Chirac won the presidential run-off with an unprecedented 82.2% of the vote, with 71% of his votes—according to polls—cast simply "to block Le Pen".Template:Sfn Following the presidential election, the main centre-right parties merged to form the broad-based Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn It nevertheless outpolled Mégret's MNR, which had fielded the same number of candidates but won a mere 1.1% support.Template:Sfn

Decline (2003–2010)Edit

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National advertisement in Marseille for Le Pen's 2007 presidential bid

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.Template:Sfn 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 system.Template:Sfn For the 2004 European elections, too, a new system less favourable to the FN had been introduced.Template:Sfn The party regained some of its strength from 1999, earning 9.8% of the vote and seven seats.Template:Sfn

For the 2007 presidential election, Le Pen and Mégret agreed to join forces. Le Pen came 4th 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, and of his personal armoured car.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2008, a French court handed Le Pen a three-month suspended sentence and a €10,000 fine for remarks he made in 2005 that contravened France's law against Holocaust denial.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Twenty permanent employees of the FN were also dismissed in 2008.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Marine Le Pen's leadershipEdit

Revival of the FN (2011–2012)Edit

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Marine Le Pen, National Front president (2011–2022)
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Results by region at the first round of the 2015 French regional elections, with regions where the National Front gained the most votes in grey

Jean-Marie Le Pen announced in September 2008 that he would retire as FN president in 2010.<ref name="tel1">Template:Cite news</ref> Le Pen's daughter Marine Le Pen and FN executive vice-president Bruno Gollnisch campaigned to succeed Le Pen,<ref name=tel1 /> with Marine's candidacy backed by her father.<ref name=tel1 /> 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.<ref name="bbc1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="bbc2">Template:Cite news</ref> She embarked on a project to transform the FN into a "mainstream party" by softening its xenophobic image.<ref name=tel1 /><ref name=bbc1 /><ref name=bbc2 /> Opinion polls showed the party's popularity increase under Marine Le Pen, and in the 2011 cantonal elections 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 that were up for election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

At the end of 2011, the National Front withdrew from the far-right Alliance of European National Movements and joined the more moderate European Alliance of Freedom. In October 2013, Bruno Gollnisch and Jean-Marie Le Pen resigned from their position in the AENM.

For the 2012 presidential election, opinion polls showed Marine Le Pen as a serious challenger, with a few polls even suggesting that she could win the first round of the election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the event, Le Pen came 3rd in the first round, scoring 17.9% – the best showing ever in a presidential election for the FN at that time.

In the 2012 legislative election, the National Front won two seats: Gilbert Collard and Marion Maréchal.<ref name="DT2MMLP">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In two polls about presidential favourites, conducted in April and May 2013,<ref name="nouvelobs1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Marine le Pen polled ahead of president François Hollande but behind Nicolas Sarkozy.<ref name="nouvelobs1" />

Electoral successes (2012–2017)Edit

File:Jielbeaumadier manif anti-fn paris 2014.jpeg
Demonstration against the National Front in Paris after the results of the 2014 election

In the municipal elections held on 23 and 30 March 2014, lists officially supported by the National Front won mayoralties in 12 cities: Beaucaire, Cogolin, Fréjus, Hayange, Hénin-Beaumont, Le Luc, Le Pontet, Mantes-la-Ville, the 7th arrondissement of Marseille, Villers-Cotterêts, Béziers and Camaret-sur-Aigues. While some of these cities were in southern France (like Fréjus) which traditionally votes more for right-wing parties than the rest of the country, others were located in northern France, where Socialist Party had been strong until the 2010s. Following these elections, the National Front had, in cities of over 1,000 inhabitants, 1,546 and 459 councilors at two different levels of local government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The international media described the results as "historic".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The National Front received 4,712,461 votes in the 2014 European Parliament election, finishing first with 24.86% of the vote and 24 of France's 74 seats.<ref>[1] Template:Webarchive</ref> This was said to be "the first time the anti-immigrant, anti-EU party had won a nationwide election in its four-decade history."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The party's success came as a "shock" in France and the EU.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Front National becomes Rassemblement National (2018)Edit

At the conclusion of the 11 March 2018 party congress in Lille, Marine Le Pen proposed renaming the party to Rassemblement national (National Rally) while keeping the flame as its logo.<ref name="Le Monde, March 2018">Template:Cite news</ref> The name was not unknown in French politics: it recalled both the National Popular Rally, a collaborationist party founded by Marcel Déat in 1941 with the help of Eugène Deloncle, founder of La Cagoule, and led by Template:Illm during the Occupation<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the Rassemblement National Français, founded by the far-right lawyer and politician Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, whose presidential campaign in 1965 was managed by Jean-Marie Le Pen.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It had already been used by the FN for Template:Ill between 1986 and 1988. Nevertheless, the name change faced opposition from an already-existing party named "Rassemblement national", whose president, Igor Kurek, described the group as "Gaullist and republican right" and who had registered the name with the INPI in 2013.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 1 June, Le Pen announced that the name change was approved by party adherents with 80.81% in favour.<ref name="Le Monde, June 2018">Template:Cite news</ref>

Presidential and parliamentary election, rebranding (2017–2022)Edit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} On 24 April 2017, a day after the first round of the presidential election, Marine Le Pen announced that she would temporarily step down as the party's leader in an attempt to "unite voters."<ref name="auto">Template:Cite news</ref> In the second round of voting, Le Pen was defeated 66.1% to 33.9% by her rival Emmanuel Macron of En Marche!<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During the following parliamentary elections, the FN received 13.02% of the vote, a little lower than the 13.07% of the 2012 elections. The party appeared to have suffered from a demobilisation of its voters from the previous vote. Nonetheless, eight deputies (six FN and two affiliated) were elected, the best number for the FN in a parliamentary election using a majoritarian electoral system since its creation.Template:Refn Marine Le Pen was elected to the National Assembly for the first time, while Gilbert Collard was re-elected. FN's 23-year-old Ludovic Pajot became the youngest ever member of the French parliament.

In late 2017, Florian Philippot left the FN and formed The Patriots, on the grounds that the FN had "softened" its position on leaving the EU and abandoning the Euro.<ref>Louise Nordstorm, Les Patriotes: How Le Pen's ex-protégé hopes to win over French far right Template:Webarchive. France 24, 18 December 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2018.</ref>

In 2018, Steve Bannon, former advisor to Donald Trump before and after his 2016 election, gave what has been described as a "populist pep talk".<ref name="Nossiter">Template:Cite news</ref> Bannon advised the party members to "Let them call you racist, let them call you xenophobes, let them call you nativists. Wear it like a badge of honor. Because every day, we get stronger and they get weaker. ... History is on our side and will bring us victory." Bannon's remarks brought the members to their feet.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Willsher, Kim (10 March 2018) "Steve Bannon tells French far-right 'history is on our side'" Template:Webarchive The Guardian</ref><ref>Ganley, Elaine (10 March 2018) "Steve Bannon told a French far-right party to wear the 'racist' label 'as a badge of honor'" Template:Webarchive Associated Press via Business Insider</ref>

In January 2019, ex-Sarkozy minister Thierry Mariani and former conservative lawmaker Jean-Paul Garraud, left Les Républicains (LR) and joined the National Rally.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

During a 2021 debate, Marine Le Pen was called "soft" on Islam by the Minister of the Interior in Macron's government, Gérald Darmanin.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Marine Le Pen called for a "national-unity government" that would include persons such as Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, former LR officials, and souverainistes on the left, such as former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the months before the 2021 French regional elections, political commentators noted an increased moderation in the FN's platform that aimed to attract conservative voters,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as a new image being promoted by the party as a force of la droite populaire, i.e. the popular right, the social right.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The party, nonetheless, fared badly in these elections.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the 2022 French presidential election, Le Pen again reached the 2nd round with 23.15% of the votes, though she was defeated by incumbent Macron, after receiving 41.45% of the votes in the run-off.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the 2022 French legislative election, for which polling had indicated that FN would win only between 15 and 45 seats in the National Assembly, the party received 18.68% of the votes in the first round<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and won 89 seats in the second round,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> a significant increase from the previous total of 8 seats. The 89 seats enabled the National Rally to form a parliamentary group, for which at least 15 deputies are required, for the first time since 1986, when the national assembly was elected by proportional voting. The result made the party the 3rd largest party in the assembly and the largest parliamentary opposition group.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Jordan Bardella's leadershipEdit

Template:See also Jordan Bardella was elected president of the RN on 5 November 2022, ending Marine Le Pen's period as president of the party. Le Pen remained president of the RN's parliamentary group.<ref name=":2" />

2024 European parliament electionEdit

In the 2024 European parliamentary elections, the RN won the most delegates of any single party (30). On 8 July, Bardella became president of the Patriots for Europe, originally founded by Viktor Orbán with the Czech ANO and the Austrian FPÖ parties on a platform of refusing military aid to Ukraine, anti-immigration, and pro-"traditional family" values.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The group, the third largest in the parliament, also includes members from the Flemish Vlaams Belang, the Dutch PVV,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the Italian Lega per Salvini Premier.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The National Rally's success in the European elections led to the dissolution of the French lower house by Emmanuel Macron on 9 June 2024.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

2024 legislative electionEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In June 2024, the party joined with the micro-party "To the right! Friends of Eric Ciotti", forming the union of the far-right in the 2024 French legislative election.<ref name="Barbarit" /> Together, these parties secured the largest share of the vote in the first round with 33.15% of the vote.<ref name="results2024">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> More voters who reported struggling financially voted for the RN than for any other party.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Based on their first round performance, the RN will receive around €15 million per year in government subsidies for the next five years: each vote in the first round was worth €1.61 per year to the party.<ref name="Barbarit">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

According to opinion polls, the National Rally were expected to get 230-270 seats, close to an absolute majority, However, 2–3 days before the second round, the RN were predicted to win around 170-220 seats. After the exit polls on 7 July, that figure was reduced to 120–170 seats, and the New Popular Front were predicted to win 150–190 seats, slightly ahead of president Macron's Ensemble alliance. Finally, the RN won only 142 seats, ranking third in the election. Template:Citation needed

IdeologyEdit

Template:Conservatism in France The party's ideology has been broadly described by scholars, including James Shields, Nonna Mayer, Jean-Yves Camus, Nicolas Lebourg and Michel Winock as nationalist, far-right (or Nouvelle Droite) and populist.<ref>Scholarly descriptions:

|CitationClass=web }}

  • Template:Harvnb
  • Winock, Michel (dir.), Histoire de l'extrême droite en France Template:Webarchive (1993)</ref> Jean-Yves Camus and Nicolas Lebourg, following Pierre-André Taguieff's analysis, include the party in an old French tradition of "national populism" that can be traced back to Boulangism. National populists combine the social values of the left and the political values of the right and advocate a referendary republic that would bypass traditional political divisions and institutions. Aiming at unity of the political (the demos), ethnic (the ethnos), and social (the working class) interpretations of the "people", they claim to defend the "average Frenchman" and "common sense", against the "betrayal of inevitably corrupt elites".Template:Sfn The party has been also described as national conservative.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The FN has changed considerably since its foundation, pursuing the principles of modernisation and pragmatism and adapting to the changing political climate.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Its message increasingly influenced mainstream political parties,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and some commentators described it as right-wing, moving closer towards the centre-right.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn In the 2010s, the party attempted to "de-demonise" its image and changed its name to National Rally. A 2022 Kanar survey found that 46% of French voters saw Marine Le Pen as "representing a patriotic Right attached to traditional values", although 50% saw her as "a danger to democracy".<ref name=":5">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

SocietyEdit

The party opposed the 2016 criminalisation of the use of prostitution in France on the grounds that it would negatively affect the safety of sex workers.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

FeminismEdit

In the 2002 legislative elections, the first under the new gender parity provision in the French Constitution, Le Pen's National Front was among the few parties to come close to meeting the law, with 49% female candidates; Jospin's Socialists had 36%, and Chirac's UMP had 19.6%.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Women voters in France were traditionally more attracted to mainstream conservative parties than the radical right until the 2000s. The proportion of women in the party has risen to 39% by 2017.Template:Sfn

Law and orderEdit

In 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen campaigned on a law-and-order platform of zero tolerance, harsher sentencing, increased prison capacity, and a referendum on re-introducing the death penalty.Template:Sfn In its 2001 programme, the party linked the breakdown of law and order to immigration, deeming immigration a "mortal threat to civil peace in France."Template:Sfn

Marine Le Pen rescinded the party's traditional support for the death penalty with her 2017 campaign launch, instead announcing support for imprisonment "in perpetuity" for the "worst crimes" in February 2017.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2022, she proposed to hold a referendum on capital punishment in France if she were elected.<ref name=":4">Samuel, Henry (14 April 2022). "Marine Le Pen: I would hold a referendum on reinstating the death penalty." The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 April 2022.</ref><ref>Samuel, Henry (15 April 2022). "Le Pen is willing to hold death penalty referendum if she is elected." Irish Independent. Retrieved 17 April 2022.</ref>

ImmigrationEdit

File:National Front.gif
2005 FN political poster reading: "Immigrants are going to vote... and you're abstaining?!!"

Since its early years, the party has called for immigration to be reduced.Template:Sfn The theme of exclusion of non-European immigrants was brought into the party in 1978 and became increasingly important in the 1980s.Template:Sfn

After the 1999 split, the FN cultivated a more moderate image on immigration and Islam, no longer calling for the systematic repatriation of legal immigrants but still supporting the deportation of illegal, criminal, or unemployed immigrants.Template:Sfn

Following the Arab Spring (2011) rebellions in several countries, Marine Le Pen campaigned for a halt to the migration of Tunisian and Libyan immigrants to Europe.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In November 2015, the party stated its goal to have a net legal immigration rate (immigrants minus emigrants) of 10,000 in France per year. Since 2017, that yearly net immigration rate was around 182,000<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> if one takes into account only people born abroad from non-French parents, but was around 44,000 if one also includes the departures and returns of French expatriates.<ref>Template:In lang 'Immigration: Le FN précise ses objectifs chiffrés (et ça change beaucoup)' ('FN defines more precisely its numerical immigration objectives (and that makes a great difference))' Template:Webarchive. 20minutes.fr, 5 November 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2016.</ref>

In 2022, Marine Le Pen proposed an end to "family reunification" rights for foreigners with residency permits and the end to the right to automatic citizenship for children born in France to foreigners living there.<ref name=":5" /> She also supported a referendum on immigration policy.<ref name=":4" />

IslamEdit

The National Rally has sought to restrict Islamic practice in France. In 2011, Marine Le Pen warned that wearing full-face veils is "the tip of the iceberg" of Islamisation of French culture.<ref name="tnyt">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2021,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and again in 2022, Le Pen again proposed banning the hijab (headscarf which only covers the head but not face) in public.<ref name=halal>Template:Cite news</ref> Le Pen also proposed to ban the production of both halal and kosher meat.<ref name=halal/> Le Pen says she is "against the visibility of Islam" but not Islam per se.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The National Rally is considered Islamophobic by many.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=halal/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The party has connected immigration to Islamic terrorism.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

EconomyEdit

At the end of the 1970s, Jean-Marie Le Pen broke away from the anti-capitalist heritage of Poujadism and espoused a market liberal and anti-statist programme which included lower taxes, reducing state intervention, reducing the size of the public sector, privatisation, and scaling back government bureaucracy. Some scholars have characterised the FN's 1978 programme as "Reaganite before Reagan".Template:Sfn

The party's economic policy shifted from the 1980s to the 1990s from neoliberalism to protectionism.<ref>Template:Bulleted list</ref>Template:Sfn This occurred within the framework of a changed international environment, from a battle between the Free World and Communism, to one between nationalism and globalisation.Template:Sfn During the 1980s, Jean-Marie Le Pen complained about the rising number of "social parasites" and called for deregulation, tax cuts, and the phasing-out of the welfare state.Template:Sfn As the party gained growing support from the economically vulnerable, it converted towards politics of social welfare and economic protectionism.Template:Sfn 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!"Template:Sfn Increasingly, the party's program became an amalgam of free market and welfare policies. By the 2010s, some political commentators described its economic policies as left-wing.Template:Sfn<ref name="theconversation.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Under Marine Le Pen, the RN has supported economic nationalism,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which it calls "economic patriotism", and it has advocated populist policies, such as tax cuts for people under 30 years old, and cuts in the value-added tax on energy and essential products. The party has supported public services, protectionism, and economic intervention and opposed the increase in the fuel tax in 2018 and the increase in the retirement age in 2023.<ref name=":5" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Under Jordan Bardella, the RN has adopted more pro-market policies, including lower taxes and simplifying industrial norms.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bardella advocated an audit of public finances as a precursor to determining the 2025 budget.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bardella has sought to use these policies to court business support during the 2024 French legislative election campaign.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> During this time, Bardella also rescinded the prior RN pledge to repeal the 2023 French pension reform law.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

ClimateEdit

Le Pen does not plan to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement but has stated that climate change is "not the priority" of the party.<ref name="presidential program"/> The party is against measures to tackle climate change and protecting the environment.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The National Rally has proposed abolition of the European Green Deal, highlighting key policies it opposes such as the 2035 ban on fossil fuel cars.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Foreign policyEdit

From the 1980s to the 1990s, the party's policy shifted from favouring the European Union to turning against it.Template:Sfn In 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen campaigned on pulling France out of the EU and re-introducing the franc as the country's national currency.Template:Sfn In the early 2000s, the party denounced the Schengen, Maastricht, and Amsterdam treaties as foundations for "a supranational entity spelling the end of France."Template:Sfn In 2004, the party criticised the EU as "the last stage on the road to world government", likening it to a "puppet of the New World Order."Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Further, it rejected the possible accession of Turkey to the EU.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn He visited Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 1990 and subsequently considered him a friend.<ref name=tnyt2 />

Marine Le Pen advocated France leaving the euro, although that policy was dropped in 2019.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She also intends to reintroduce customs borders and has campaigned against allowing dual citizenship.<ref name="spiegel">Template:Cite news</ref> During both the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis and the 2011 Libyan civil war, she opposed the French military involvements.<ref name=tnyt /> However, the party supported the 2013 Operation Serval in Mali against Islamist militants in the country because it was at the request of the Malian government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Le Pen has praised Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for "fighting radical Islam", stating that Egypt's "ability to separate extremist Islam from the religion sets an example to the rest of the world, including France, of how to deal with poisonous ideologies".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The party has also favourably contrasted the United Arab Emirates's opposition to Islamism with the more pro-Islamist position taken by Qatar.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The party has advocated closer France–Morocco relations, criticising Macron's attempts to deepen ties with Algeria.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In January 2023, the National Rally was one of only four parties in the European Parliament that voted against a resolution condemning Morocco's treatment of journalist Omar Radi.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It praised the 2024 recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara and suggested the French government should have acted sooner.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Le Pen supports the restoration of France-Syria relations and called for cooperation with Israel, the United States, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia to support the economic recovery of Lebanon from the Lebanese economic crisis. The party supports a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and welcomed the Abraham Accords.<ref name="presidential program">Template:Cite news</ref> The party has shifted towards more pro-Israel policies over time, particularly following the Gaza war.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bardella has expressed opposition to recognition of Palestinian statehood following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, on the grounds that this would be "recognising terrorism".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Following the 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Le Pen suggested that a ceasefire would be impossible without the "dismantling" of Hezbollah.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Russia and UkraineEdit

Marine Le Pen described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "defender of the Christian heritage of European civilisation."<ref name="Ind141127">Template:Cite news</ref> The National Front considers that Ukraine has been subjugated by the United States, through the Revolution of Dignity. The National Front denounces anti-Russian feelings in Eastern Europe and the submission of Western Europe to "Washington's" interests in the region.<ref>[2] Template:Webarchive</ref> Marine Le Pen is very critical against the threats of sanctions directed by the international community against Russia: "European countries should seek a solution through diplomacy rather than making threats that could lead to an escalation." She argues that the United States is leading a new Cold War against Russia. She sees no other solution for peace in Ukraine than to organise a kind of federation that would allow each region a large degree of autonomy.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She thinks Ukraine should be sovereign and free as any other nation.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Luke Harding wrote in The Guardian that the National Front's MEPs were a "pro-Russian bloc."<ref name="GN141208">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2014, the Nouvel Observateur said that the Russian government considered the National Front "capable of seizing power in France and changing the course of European history in Moscow's favour."<ref name="NO141127">Template:Cite news</ref> According to the French media, party leaders had frequent contact with Russian ambassador Alexander Orlov and Marine Le Pen made multiple trips to Moscow.<ref name="BD141123">Template:Cite news</ref> In May 2015, one of her advisers, Emmanuel Leroy, attended an event in Donetsk marking the "independence" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.<ref name="DB150514">Template:Cite news</ref>

The RN remains divided on relations with Russia, with Bardella stating that he believed Russia threatened French security. At the same time, Thierry Mariani suggested it was not a threat to France or Europe.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The more pro-Russian Mariani has been described as in conflict with Pierre-Romain Thionnet, who has advocated a more pro-Ukrainian line, with Bardella maintaining a balance between the two positions.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During the 2022 French presidential election, Le Pen supported sending non-lethal defensive aid to Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War, but not heavy weapons that would make France a "co-belligerent" in the conflict.<ref name="presidential program"/> Similarly, Bardella has expressed support for defense equipment, ammunition, and logistical assistance to Ukraine but maintains opposition to giving long-range missiles to Ukraine or deploying French soldiers there.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He is also opposed to Ukrainian NATO membership, suggesting it could escalate the war.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

European UnionEdit

Since their entry into the European Parliament in 1979, the National Rally has promoted a message of being pro-Europe but anti-EU.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> However, in 2019, the proposal that France leave the Eurozone and the EU was removed from the party's manifesto, which has since called for "reform from within" of the union.<ref>Template:Bulleted list</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The party advocates that EU legislation should be initiated by the Council of the EU rather than the European Commission, and that French laws should have primacy over EU laws.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" />

NATOEdit

The party's stance on NATO has varied throughout the years. Under Jean-Marie Le Pen's leadership, the party advocated a complete withdrawal from the organization, while under Marine Le Pen's leadership, the party has softened its stance to advocate leaving NATO's integrated military command structure, which France joined in 2009.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Bulleted list</ref> Jordan Bardella later added that the RN would not advocate withdrawing France from the integrated command while the Russian invasion of Ukraine was ongoing.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Electoral reform and referendumsEdit

The National Rally has advocated for full proportional representation in France, claiming that the two-round system disenfranchises voters. In early 2021, Marine Le Pen, along with centrist politician François Bayrou and green politician Julien Bayou, cosigned a letter asking President Emmanuel Macron to implement proportional representation for future elections.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The party advocates referendums on key issues such as the death penalty, immigration policy, and constitutional change. In 2022, Marine Le Pen stated: "I want the referendum to become a classic operating tool."<ref name=":4" />

ControversiesEdit

Opinions on the holocaust, and relations with Jewish groupsEdit

There has been a difference between Marine Le Pen's and her father's opinions concerning the Holocaust and Jews. In 2005, Jean-Marie Le Pen wrote in the far-right weekly magazine Rivarol that the German occupation of France "was not particularly inhumane, even if there were a few blunders, inevitable in a country of 640,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq. mi.)" and in 1987 referred to the Nazi gas chambers as "a point of detail of the history of the Second World War". He has repeated the latter claim several times.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2004, Bruno Gollnisch said: "I do not question the existence of concentration camps, but historians could discuss the number of deaths. As to the existence of gas chambers, it is up to historians to determine".Template:Sfn Jean-Marie Le Pen was fined for these remarks, but Gollnisch was found not guilty by the Court of Cassation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="holocauste">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The leader of the party, Marine Le Pen, distanced herself for a time from the party machine in protest at her father's comments.Template:Sfn In response to her father's remarks, Marine Le Pen referred to the Holocaust as the "abomination of abominations".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During the 2012 presidential election, Marine Le Pen sought the support of Jewish people in France.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Interviewed by the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz about the fact that some of her European senior colleagues had formed alliances with, and visited, some Israeli settlers and groups, Marine Le Pen said:

The shared concern about radical Islam explains the relationship ... but it is possible that behind it is also the need of the visitors from Europe to change their image in their countries ... As far as their partners in Israel are concerned, I myself don't understand the idea of continuing to develop the settlements. I consider it a political mistake and would like to make it clear in this context that we must have the right to criticise the policy of the State of Israel – just as we are allowed to criticise any sovereign country – without it being considered anti-Semitism. After all, the National Front has always been Zionistic and always defended Israel's right to exist.

She has opposed the emigration of French Jews to Israel in response to radical Islam, explaining: "The Jews of France are Frenchmen, they're at home here, and they must stay here and not emigrate. The country is obligated to provide solutions against the development of radical Islam in problematic areas".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Czecho-Russian bank loanEdit

In November 2014, Marine Le Pen confirmed that the party had received a €9 million loan from the First Czech Russian Bank (FCRB) in Moscow to the National Front.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="MP141127">Template:Cite news</ref> Senior FN officials from the party's political bureau informed Mediapart that this was the first instalment of a €40 million loan, although Marine Le Pen has disputed this.Template:RTemplate:R The Independent said the loans "take Moscow's attempt to influence the internal politics of the EU to a new level".Template:R Reinhard Bütikofer stated, "It's remarkable that a political party from the motherland of freedom can be funded by Putin's sphere—the largest European enemy of freedom".<ref name="DW141129">Template:Cite news</ref> Marine Le Pen argued that it was not a donation from the Russian government but a loan from a private Russian bank because no other bank would give her a loan. This loan is meant to prepare future electoral campaigns and to be repaid progressively. Marine Le Pen has publicly disclosed all the rejection letters that French banks have sent to her concerning her loan requests.<ref name="leparisien1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Since November 2014, she insists that if a French bank agrees to give her a loan, she would break her contract with the FCBR, but she has not received any other counter-propositions.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Le Pen accused the banks of collusion with the government.<ref name="leparisien1" /> In April 2015, a Russian hacker group published texts and emails between Timur Prokopenko, a member of Putin's administration, and Konstantin Rykov, a former Duma deputy with ties to France, discussing Russian financial support to the National Front in exchange for its support of Russia's annexation of Crimea, though this has not coalesced.<ref name="Monde150403">Template:Cite news</ref>

Links with banned neo-fascist groupEdit

A 2019 undercover investigation by Al Jazeera uncovered links between high-ranking National Rally figures and Generation Identity, a far-right group. In secretly taped conversations, RN leaders endorsed goals of Generation Identity and discussed plans to "remigrate" immigrants, effectively sending them back to their countries of origin, if the RN came to power. Christelle Lechevalier, a RN Member of the European Parliament (MEP), said that many RN leaders held similar opinions as the GI, but sought to hide them from voters.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Payment of party officials with EU fundsEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In December 2023, 28 people, including Marine Le Pen and her father Jean Marie, were ordered to stand trial after they were charged with a scheme which involved paying National Rally party officials through EU funds which were earmarked for European Parliament assistants.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On 31 March 2025, 25 National Rally members (including Le Pen, 9 other former NR MEPs, and 12 assistants) were found guilty. The sentences for Le Pen and several former MEPs included bans from running for political office.<ref name="Gdn31325">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="TelegraphConviction">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="France24Conviction">Template:Cite news</ref>

OrganizationEdit

LeadershipEdit

The executive bureau features: Jordan Bardella (president), Steeve Briois (vice-president), Louis Aliot (vice-president), David Rachline (vice-president), Kévin Pfeffer (treasurer), Julien Sanchez (spokesperson), Gilles Pennelle (regional councilor), Edwige Diaz (deputy regional councilor), Hélène Laporte, Philippe Olivier, and Jean-Paul Garraud.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

PresidentsEdit

No President Template:Nowrap Template:Nowrap
1 File:Jean-marie le pen cropped.jpg
Jean-Marie Le Pen 		5 October 1972 15 January 2011
Jean-Marie Le Pen founded the National Front for French Unity party in 1972 and contested the Presidency of France in 1974, 1988, 1995, 2002 and 2007. He served several terms as a deputy of the National Assembly of France and a Member of the European Parliament. He later served as the party's honorary president from January 2011 to August 2015.<ref name=":0" /> He died on 7 January 2025 at the age of 96.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2 File:Marine Le Pen 2022 (cropped).jpg
Marine Le Pen 		15 January 2011 5 November 2022
Marine Le Pen took over as the president of the party in 2011 and contested the 2012, 2017 and 2022 French presidential elections. She served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2017 and has served as a deputy of the National Assembly of France since 2017. Under her leadership, the party was renamed National Rally in 2018.
3 File:Jordan Bardella (July 2022).jpg
Jordan Bardella 		5 November 2022
Acting since 13 September 2021 		Incumbent
Jordan Bardella became acting president of the party after Marine Le Pen launched her presidential campaign in September 2021.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was elected president in November 2022.

Vice PresidentsEdit

The party had five vice presidents between July 2012 and March 2018 (against three previously).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

  • Template:Ill, first vice president (2011–2014)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Louis Aliot, in charge of training and demonstrations (2011–2018)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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  • Jean-François Jalkh, in charge of elections and electoral litigations (2012–2018)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Florian Philippot, in charge of strategy and communication (2012–2017)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In March 2018, the position of vice-president replaced that of General Secretary.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It became a duo in June 2019:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

General SecretariesEdit

The position of General Secretary was held between 1972 and 2018:<ref name=":0"/>

Elected representativesEdit

As of February 2023, the National Rally has 88 MPs. They sit in the National Assembly as members of the National Rally group.

International affiliation and relationsEdit

1980s-2000sEdit

The FN has been part of several groups in the European Parliament. 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn As the MSI evolved into the National Alliance, it chose to distance itself from the FN.Template:Sfn

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. Between the mentioned groups, the party sat among the non-affiliated Non-Inscrits. It was part of the Identity and Democracy group.

It was formerly known as the Europe of Nations and Freedom group, during which time it also included the Polish Congress of the New Right, a former member of the UK Independence Party and a former member of Romania's Conservative Party. The RN has also been part of the Identity and Democracy Party (formerly the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom) since 2014, which additionally includes Slovakia's We Are Family and the Bulgarian Volya Movement, which was later renamed Patriots.eu. After the 2024 European Parliament election, the National Rally joined the Patriots for Europe group with Fidesz, Vox, the Czech ANO 2011, the Portuguese Chega, the Greek Voice of Reason, Latvia First and most former ID members, with Bardella ultimately chairing the group.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During Jean-Marie Le Pen's presidency, 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 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.<ref name="tnyt2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 2009, the FN joined the Alliance of European National Movements; it left the alliance since. Along with some other European parties, the FN in 2010 visited Japan's Issuikai ("right-wing") movement and the Yasukuni Shrine.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

2010sEdit

At a conference in 2011, the two new leaders of the FN and the FPÖ, Marine Le Pen and Heinz-Christian Strache, announced deeper cooperation between their parties.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Pursuing her de-demonisation policy, in October 2011, Marine Le Pen, as new president of the National Front, joined the European Alliance for Freedom (EAF).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The EAF is a pan-European sovereigntist platform founded late 2010 that is recognised by the European Parliament. The EAF has individual members linked to the Austrian Freedom Party of Heinz-Christian Strache, the UK Independence Party, and other movements such as the Sweden Democrats, Vlaams Belang (Belgian Flanders), Germany (Bürger in Wut), and Slovakia (Slovak National Party).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

During her 2012 visit to the United States, Marine Le Pen met two Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives associated with the Tea Party movement, Joe Walsh, who is known for his strong stance against Islam, which Domenic Powell argues, rises to Islamophobia<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul, whom Le Pen complimented for his stance on the gold standard.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In February 2017, two more conservative Republican Congressmen, Steve King and Dana Rohrabacher, also met with Le Pen in Paris.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The party also has ties to Steve Bannon, who served as White House Chief Strategist under President Donald Trump, and addressed an RN event in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The FN allied with the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) in November 2013, after years of the PVV rejecting collaboration with the FN.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Similarly, in December 2013, the FN formed an alliance with Matteo Salvini, the new leader of the Lega Nord, which had previously eschewed cooperation with the FN when it was led by Umberto Bossi.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2014, UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage was critical of the FN, claiming that the FN's association with "anti-Semitism and general prejudice" made it impossible for UKIP to join Le Pen's efforts for a united right-wing populist European Parliament group<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> despite an invitation from PVV leader Wilders.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2017, Marine Le Pen met with and was interviewed for the British radio station LBC by Farage, who praised Le Pen and expressed support for her presidential bid.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Prior to the 2019 European Parliament election, Farage's Brexit Party initially considered forming a joint group in the next European Parliament, but ultimately once again declined.<ref>https://x.com/EuropeElects/status/1129133778717282309</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="EUalliance"/> In 2024, Farage, in his capacity as the leader of Reform UK, distanced himself from the RN, describing its economic agenda as a "disaster" for France.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Though the FN had close contacts with Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) from 2013 onwards,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the relationship between the RN and FdI became strained in 2022, after Meloni publicly declined to support Le Pen's 2022 presidential bid.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2023, Meloni complained to French President Emmanuel Macron after he compared her to Le Pen,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> while Le Pen criticised Meloni's illegal immigration policies.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

However, in early 2024, Le Pen and Meloni made overtures to one another, declining to rule out future cooperation between their parties.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In July 2024, Meloni praised Le Pen's alliance with Eric Ciotti and Marion Maréchal during the 2024 French legislative election, congratulated the RN on its success in the first round of the election, and expressed preference for the right-wing alliance in the second round of the election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In addition, the party has had relations with Krasimir Karakachanov's IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement in 2014<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Nenad Popović's Serbian People's Party since 2021.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The RN was critical of the decision to allow the Bulgarian Revival to join the ID Party in 2024.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Since 2018, the RN has had relations with Santiago Abascal's Vox in Spain.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2024, Vox had Le Pen address its conference, despite Vox being a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group; after the election, Vox joined the RN in Patriots for Europe.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2019, RN MEPs participated in the first international delegation to visit India's Jammu and Kashmir following the decision by Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party government to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The delegation was not sanctioned by the European Parliament, and consisted mostly of right-wing populist politicians including MEPs from Vox, AfD, the Northern League, Vlaams Belang, the British Brexit Party, and Poland's Law and Justice party.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

2020sEdit

In October 2021, Le Pen met with Fidesz leader and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki from the Law and Justice (PiS) party, and Slovenian Democratic Party leader and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Both PiS and Fidesz had previously rejected cooperation with Le Pen in 2019.<ref name="EUalliance">Template:Cite news</ref> Orbán subsequently supported Le Pen during the 2022 French presidential election.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Morawiecki later expressed openness to the RN joining the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in February 2024.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Relations with the AfD deteriorated in early 2024, following Le Pen's disagreements with the AfD members' discussions over remigration<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the AfD questioning French control of Mayotte.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In May 2024, the RN announced it would end its alliance with the AfD in the next European Parliament term.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During the 2024 French legislative election, Israeli minister Amichai Chikli expressed support for Le Pen and the National Rally, and suggested that Likud leader and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared his views, prompting a rebuke by President Macron.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Chikli later described his relations with the RN, stating it was "natural that conservative leaders will have good relations with conservative leaders all across the globe".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Election resultsEdit

The National Front was a marginal party in 1973, the first election it participated in, but the party made its breakthrough in the 1984 European Parliament election, 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 2002 French presidential election, although it failed to attract much more support after the initial first round vote. In the late 2000s the party suffered decline in elections. Under Marine Le Pen's presidency the party has increased its vote share significantly. The National Front came first in a national election for the first time during the 2014 European elections, when it gained 24% of the vote. During the 2017 presidential election the party advanced to the second round of the election for the second time, and doubled the percentage it received in the 2002 presidential election, earning 34%. In the 2019 European elections the rebranded National Rally retained its spot as first party.

National AssemblyEdit

National Assembly
Election year Leader 1st round votes % 2nd round votes % Seats +/–
1973Template:Sfn Jean-Marie Le Pen 108,616 0.5% — — Template:Composition bar Template:Steady
1978Template:Sfn 82,743 0.3% — — Template:Composition bar Template:Steady
1981Template:Sfn 44,414 0.2% — — Template:Composition bar Template:Steady
1986Template:Sfn 2,703,442 9.6% — — Template:Composition bar
Template:Increase 35
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1988Template:Sfn 2,359,528 9.6% — — Template:Composition bar
Template:Decrease 34
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1993<ref name="eed">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

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3,155,702 12.7% 1,168,143 5.8% Template:Composition bar
Template:Decrease 1
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1997<ref name=eed/> 3,791,063 14.9% 1,435,186 5.7% Template:Composition bar
Template:Increase 1
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2002<ref name=eed/> 2,873,390 11.1% 393,205 1.9% Template:Composition bar
Template:Decrease 1
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2007<ref name=eed/> 1,116,136 4.3% 17,107 0.1% Template:Composition bar Template:Steady
2012 Marine Le Pen 3,528,373 13.6% 842,684 3.7% Template:Composition bar
Template:Increase 2
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2017 2,990,454 13.2% 1,590,858 8.8% Template:Composition bar
Template:Increase 6
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2022 4,248,626 18.7% 3,589,465 17.3% Template:Composition bar
Template:Increase 81
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2024 Jordan Bardella 10,647,914 33.2% 10,110,079 37.1% Template:Composition bar
Template:Increase 53
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PresidentialEdit

Election year Candidate First round Second round Result
Votes % Rank Votes % Rank
1974 Jean-Marie Le Pen 190,921 0.75 Template:Increase 7th colspan=3 Template:N/A Template:No
1981 did not participate
1988 Jean-Marie Le Pen 4,375,894 14.39 Template:Increase 4th colspan=3 Template:N/A Template:No
1995 4,570,838 15.00 Template:Steady 4th colspan=3 Template:N/A Template:No
2002 4,804,713 16.86 Template:Increase 2nd 5,525,032 17.70 Template:Increase 2nd Template:No
2007 3,834,530 10.44 Template:Decrease 4th colspan=3 Template:N/A Template:No
2012 Marine Le Pen 6,421,426 17.90 Template:Increase 3rd colspan=3 Template:N/A Template:No
2017 7,678,491 21.30 Template:Increase 2nd 10,638,475 33.90 Template:Steady 2nd Template:No
2022 8,133,828 23.15 Template:Steady 2nd 13,288,686 41.45 Template:Steady 2nd Template:No

Regional councilsEdit

Regional councils
Election Leader 1st round votes % 2nd round votes % Seats Regional presidencies +/– Winning party Rank
1986Template:Sfn Jean-Marie Le Pen 2,654,390 9.7% — — Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar Template:Steady Union for French Democracy 4th
1992Template:Sfn 3,396,141 13.9% — — Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar Template:Increase Rally for the Republic 3rd
1998Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

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3,270,118 15.3% — — Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar Template:Increase
2004<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

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3,564,064 14.7% 3,200,194 12.4% Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease Socialist Party
2010<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

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2,223,800 11.4% 1,943,307 9.2% Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease
2015<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

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Marine Le Pen 6,018,672 27.7% 6,820,147 27.1% Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar Template:Increase The Republicans
2021<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

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2,743,497 18.7% 2,908,253 19.1% Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease Leftist Union + Ecologists

European ParliamentEdit

European Parliament
See also Elections to the European Parliament
Election Leader Votes % Seats +/– EP Group
1984 Jean-Marie Le Pen 2,210,334 10.95 (#4) Template:Composition bar New ER
1989 2,129,668 11.73 (#3) Template:Composition bar Template:Steady 0 ER
1994 2,050,086 10.52 (#5) Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 1 NI
1999 1,005,113 5.70 (#8) Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease 6 TGI
2004 1,684,792 9.81 (#4) Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 2 NI
2009 1,091,691 6.34 (#6) Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease 4
2014 Marine Le Pen 4,712,461 24.86 (#1) Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 21 ENF
2019 Jordan Bardella 5,286,939 23.34 (#1) Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease 1 ID
2024Template:Efn 7,765,936 31.50 (#1) Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 7 PfE

Template:Notelist

Congress of New CaledoniaEdit

Election Votes % Seats
2004 6,135 6.85% Template:Composition bar
2009 2,591 2.68% Template:Composition bar
2014 2,706 2.57% Template:Composition bar
2019 2,707 2.46% Template:Composition bar

See alsoEdit

NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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SourcesEdit

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Further readingEdit

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External linksEdit

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