This October 5, 2022, the FN, now RN, celebrates its 50th anniversary.
The National Front (FN), a far-right party founded in 1972 by Jean-Marie Le Pen and which became the National Rally (RN) chaired by his daughter Marine, has continued to rise since its creation.
From the marginal small group to the first opposition party which brought together more than 40% of voters in the presidential election, the nationalist movement is also closely linked to a family that responds to the name of Le Pen.
“Detail” of History, “de-demonization”, a look back over 50 years at the French far right within the same clan, in images.
Directed by:
Olivier JUSZCZAK
On October 5, 1972, the "National Front for French Unity", a party resulting from various nationalist groups including Ordre Nouveau, was born.
After a score of less than 1% in the 1974 presidential election, its president Jean-Marie Le Pen focused on the fight against immigration.
The far-right party is closely linked with the family of its leader.
Here Jean-Marie Le Pen, surrounded by his three daughters Marie-Caroline, Marine and Yann, and his wife Pierrette.
The party adopts a symbolic logo representing a flame in the colors blue, white, red.
In February 1985, the eldest Marie-Caroline and the youngest Marine campaigned together within the framework of the cantonal elections in Neuilly-sur-Seine.
And Marine Le Pen loves her name!
In 1986, the proportional vote brought 35 FN deputies to the National Assembly, 135 FN elected to the regional elections.
Jean-Marie Le Pen likes to stage himself and throw punches in the face of History.
In September 1987, he called the Nazi gas chambers "a point of detail in the history of the Second World War" and was condemned for it in 1991.
Jean-Marie recorded 14.37% of the votes in the 1988 presidential election, which delighted the entire Le Pen family.
But retains only one member after the legislative elections that follow.
From 1992 to 1998, the FN took bastions: Toulon (Var), Marignane (Bouches-du-Rhône) or Orange (Vaucluse).
In the 1995 presidential election, Jean-Marie Le Pen obtained 15.15% of the vote.
On May 1, on the sidelines of an FN parade where the leader is accompanied by his daughter Marine, a young Moroccan is pushed into the Seine by skinheads and drowns.
In Mantes-la-Jolie, on May 30, 1997, Jean-Marie Le Pen violently opposed a demonstration against his arrival.
After having molested the mayor of the city, he attacks a young demonstrator calling him "redhead" and "queer".
He will be sentenced to two years of ineligibility.
It was then that the leader publicly considered having his wife lead the FN list in the 1999 European elections. She refused and her husband could finally represent the party during these elections with disappointing results (5.70%).
Thunderbolt in 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen beat Lionel Jospin and qualified for the second round of the presidential election against Jacques Chirac with 16.86%.
Many demonstrations are organized everywhere in France against the far right during the in-between round.
On May 1, 2002, more than 1,300,000 people took to the streets to protest against the presence of Jean-Marie Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, meanwhile, walks in his garden with his two Dobermans.
On the 5th, Jacques Chirac, who refused the televised debate with his adversary, was re-elected with 82.21% of the votes, an atypical score in a democracy.
From 2002, Marine Le Pen appeared more and more in the media.
Then became vice-president of the party, but the FN fell back to the 2009 Europeans (4.17%).
Marine Le Pen, like her father, appreciates pets and makes it known...
Marine Le Pen became party leader on January 16, 2011 and began her process of “de-demonization”.
In 2012, she came third in the presidential election with 17.9%.
The same year, a new member of the Le Pen family appeared.
Marion Maréchal, his niece, becomes deputy of Vaucluse and enters the Bourbon palace.
Anxious to polish the image of the FN, Marine Le Pen emphasizes social issues.
After winning eleven town halls in 2014, his party garnered a historic victory in the European elections (25%), far ahead of the UMP and the PS.
But tensions begin to appear between Marion and Marine.
The niece will choose after her mandate to leave the party and will engage with a competing movement, after a break in her political career.
In the 2015 cantonal elections, the FN is in the lead in 43 departments.
But Jean-Marie Le Pen repeats his remarks on the gas chambers.
On August 20, at the age of 87, the former leader who had become too cumbersome for the purpose of “de-demonizing” communication, was expelled from the party.
In April 2017, after a debate that she recognized as "failed", Marine Le Pen lost in the second round of the presidential election (21%) against Emmanuel Macron.
We notice that the flame and the name of the party have disappeared from the desk.
At the end of June, she was indicted in an investigation into the parliamentary assistants of MEPs from her party.
Re-elected in 2018, Marine Le Pen wants to symbolize the "transformation" of the FN into a "party of government" and alliances: it becomes the National Rally (RN).
European justice confirms that it must reimburse nearly 300,000 euros to the European Parliament.
His indictment is reclassified as "embezzlement of public funds".
The European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) recommends in March 2022 the reimbursement of around 600,000 euros that Le Pen and his relatives would have misused.
On April 10, 2022, she failed (41.5%) against Macron in the second round of the presidential election.
Never has the far right come so close to power under the Fifth Republic.
An event that we share as a family…
In the legislative elections following the presidential election of 2022, the RN made a historic breakthrough with 89 elected, becoming the first opposition party.
The election of Le Pen's successor at the head of the party is set for November 5, the latter devoting herself to the Assembly.
Jordan Bardella and Louis Aliot are in the running.
For the first time in fifty years, the president of the RN will not be a Le Pen...
Slideshow
National Front
Jean Marie Le Pen
Marine Le Pen
Marion Maréchal-Le Pen
Political party
Policy
National Rally (RN)