Municipal: Marie-Caroline Le Pen actively returns to politics as a candidate in Calais - France 24

Lille (AFP)

Marie-Caroline Le Pen, 60, older sister of the president of the National Rally Marine Le Pen, has decided to make an active return to politics by appearing on the RN list for municipal elections in Calais (Pas-de-Calais), has learned AFP Tuesday from concordant sources.

The RN list led by Marc de Fleurian, where it appears in 18th position (out of 49), was filed this Tuesday in the prefecture. It will be presented to the press on Monday 24 February.

Questioned by AFP, Mr. de Fleurian confirmed the presence on his list of Marie-Caroline Le Pen, who is also the wife of the European deputy RN Philippe Olivier, today very close to the president of the party.

Philippe Olivier, who is also on Marc de Fleurian's list for municipal elections, had been a FN candidate in Calais in the legislative elections of June 2017, beaten in the second round by Pierre-Henri Dumont (LR).

"From 2017 and the legislative campaign, Marie-Caroline Le Pen became attached to Calais. She settled there and now lives there full time," said Mr. de Fleurian.

Because of her position on the RN list, Marie-Caroline Le Pen should however be elected to city council only if this list wins, particularly against that of the outgoing mayor LR Natacha Bouchart, supported by LREM and favorite of the ballot.

"We have shown our desire to put forward above all, at the start of the list, Calais residents since always," Marc de Fleurian told AFP.

Long presented as the one who could succeed her father Jean-Marie, Marie-Caroline Le Pen, who joined the National Front at a very young age, was notably a legislative candidate in 1997 in the Yvelines. During this campaign, Jean-Marie Le Pen had hit the headlines by physically attacking, in front of television cameras, the socialist candidate Annette Peulvast-Bergeal, who then won in the second round.

The eldest daughter Le Pen fell out the following year with the family clan by joining, with her husband, Bruno Mégret within the MNR, from which she resigned in 2000.

As early as 2011, Marine Le Pen had publicly declared having "completely forgiven" her sister, who returned to the FN in 2016. Marie-Caroline then publicly reconciled with her father, in June 2018, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the patriarch.

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