The Guardian View on the Le Pen Family Firm: Reaching the End of the Line?

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: High-profile defections and the challenge of Éric Zemmour could leave Marine Le Pen with nowhere to go

‘During the current election campaign, Ms Le Pen has focused on blue-collar issues and economic nationalism.’ Photograph: Chesnot/Getty Images
Is the longest-running political dynasty on Europe’s far right finally running out of road? After her defeat by Emmanuel Macron in the presidential run-off of 2017, Marine Le Pen decided to double down on attempts to detoxify the Front National (FN) movement founded by her father, Jean-Marie, in 1972. The party’s name was changed to the more innocuous-sounding Rassemblement National (National Rally) and its hostility to the European Union and the euro was toned down. During the current election campaign, Ms Le Pen has focused on blue-collar issues and economic nationalism. Having tempered the xenophobic rhetoric and culture-warrior persona, last month she said that she had “definitively broken with provocations” that were “the sins of our political family”.

It is generally accepted that this strategy – and this election campaign – represent Ms Le Pen’s last throw of the dice. So far, her numbers are not coming up. In a disastrous beginning to the year, she has endured a number of high-profile defections to the camp of her more extreme rival on the far right, Éric Zemmour. Most damagingly of all, her charismatic niece Marion Maréchal, a former FN MP, last week signalled both her sympathy for Mr Zemmour’s old-school approach and her desire to return to the political stage after a five-year break. Ms Maréchal is far more socially conservative than her aunt, whom she has reportedly not spoken to for some time. In an extraordinary television interview, Ms Le Pen seemed on the point of tears as she described her intervention as “brutal” and “violent”. » | Editorial | Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Le Pen Feud Deepens as French Far-right Leader’s Niece Withdraws Support

THE GUARDIAN: Marine Le Pen calls Marion Maréchal’s decision not to back presidential bid ‘brutal, violent and painful’

Marine Le Pen, who has expressed her ‘incomprehension’ of the politics behind Maréchal’s decision. Photograph: Alain Robert/Sipa/Rex/Shutterstock
France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen has described her niece’s decision not to support her presidential campaign as “brutal, violent and painful”.

Marion Maréchal, who dropped Le Pen from her name in 2018, said she was considering whether to transfer her allegiance to Éric Zemmour, who is even further to the right.

In an interview with Le Parisien, Maréchal, who at 22 became the youngest MP in the Assemblée Nationale in 2012, before stepping down in 2017, said her aunt’s “incessant ideological and programme changes” showed a “lack of logic and vision”.

On potentially backing Zemmour, she said: “I’m thinking about it. I haven’t decided. If I support Éric, [it] would not just be a question of passing by and saying hello. It would mean returning to politics. It’s a real life choice, a heavy decision.” » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Friday, January 28, 2022

«J'ai envie de retourner en politique» : les confidences de Marion Maréchal au Figaro : L'ancienne députée FN du Vaucluse confie que «la cohérence, la vision, la stratégie» la font pencher pour Éric Zemmour. Elle envisage de se présenter aux législatives de 2022. »

On the Scrappy Fringes of French Politics, Marine Le Pen Tries to Rebrand

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader and main challenger to President Emmanuel Macron in next year’s election, wants to persuade voters that she and her party can govern France.

LA TRINITÉ-SUR-MER, France — It was the setting for a straightforward origin story, or so it seemed. Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader aiming to be France’s next president, came to launch her latest campaign in the seaside resort where her firebrand father once announced his own bid for the presidency from the family home.

But the recent trip to the family base at La Trinité-sur-Mer in western France, where Ms. Le Pen posed for selfies with admirers, schmoozed with oystermen and took TV journalists on boat rides, was a critical part of a rebranding effort toward respectability.

Steering the motorboat was Florent de Kersauson, a prominent businessman who, after decades of backing center-right candidates, was switching to Ms. Le Pen’s National Rally. By embracing Mr. de Kersauson, a former senior executive at the telecommunications giant Alcatel, Ms. Le Pen latched on to the kind of establishment figure who could help persuade voters that her party was more than a scrappy, family business. And maybe even assuage doubts about her competence to move into the Élysée Palace.

“The National Rally, formerly the National Front, has gone from being a protest movement to an opposition movement, and is now a government movement,” Ms. Le Pen said. » | Norimitsu Onishi | Sunday, May 16, 2021

Change You Can Believe In? Macron Win Signals New Era In French Politics (Parts 1 & 2)

French Election: How Macron Defeated Le Pen to Become President - BBC News

The pro-European centrist, Emmanuel Macron, will be France's next president. Within a few hours of being declared the winner - Mr Macron promised to heal divisions and restore confidence in the European Union.

'France Has Chosen Continuity' - Le Pen - BBC News

Defeated National Front leader Marine Le Pen told supporters that the country had chosen the "continuity candidate" in centrist Emmanuel Macron and wished her rival well.

What Is At Stake in the French Election?

May. 06, 2017 - 3:42 - James Kirchick provides insight

Will Marine Le Pen Overcome Macron to Triumph in the French Elections?

As France's two oldest parties crash out of the first round of elections, SBS Dateline examines the working class town of Denain, whose residents could signal the nation's choice between the centre and far-right.

France Presidential Election: What are Macron's and Le Pen's CVs?

French Presidential Candidates Make Last Push for Votes

French presidential candidates make last push for votes. It's the final day of campaigning for French presidential candidates Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron. Voters are set to head to the polls on Sunday. Macron is still the favourite in the polls, but his rival remains confident that victory is within her reach. Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reports from Paris.

As the Campaign Comes to a Close, Le Pen and Macron Keep an Eye on Abstention

The Bitter End: Presidential Campaign Closes in France

The Dark Side of France - People & Power

Last month more than seven and a half million French voters propelled the National Front's Marine Le Pen through to the final, second round of this year's presidential election on May 7.

Though recent opinion polls have consistently been against her getting past the centrist Emmanuel Macron to the Élysée Palace, the very fact that an openly xenophobic, anti-immigrant and anti-European Union politician is on the final ballot speaks to a great and troubling fracture in French society.

So how and why have so many people been persuaded to back her?

Though she has now, temporarily, stepped down as leader of her party, her affiliations are in no doubt.

The conundrum remains: how has someone who for years has been so identified with far-right chauvinism and exclusion managed to give her party an acceptable face and get within touching distance of the presidency?

French producers Charles Emptaz and Claire Billet, who usually spend their professional lives covering foreign stories far from home, were as puzzled by these questions as we were, so several weeks ago we sent them behind-the-scenes on the campaign trail to investigate.

Emmanuel Macron Confronted by Union Activists in Albi While Le Pen Dodges Eggs in Brittany

LE DÉBAT - Emmanuel Macron – Marine Le Pen – Élection Présidentielle 2017

Face to Face: Le Pen, Macron Square Off In Final Debate

Terror Attacks in France: A Gift to Marine Le Pen?

WIKIPEDIA: Gilles Kepel »

The Fate of Europe? Continent Waits On French Presidential Election (Parts 1 & 2)

Le Pen and Macron Trade Barbs amid May Day Clashes

Macron vs. Le Pen: France's Bitter Presidential Run-off Race