She smoothed and softened her speech, trivialized her image, to the point of rejecting the far-right qualifier: Marine Le Pen, who is seeking the supreme magistracy for the third time in France, is reaping the fruits of a long strategy of “de-demonization », even if on the bottom, particularly on immigration, its program did not change.
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At 53, the chances of the youngest of the three daughters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, historical and sulphurous figure of the French far right, who faces Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the presidential election, appear much more serious than in 2017.
With 23.15% of the votes in the first round, the girl improves on her previous score (21.30% in 2017) and far exceeds that of her father – almost 17% – in 2002 once morest Jacques Chirac. But if the qualification of the far right in the second round was an earthquake in French political life 20 years ago, today it is almost “banal”. Fruit of the strategy patiently led by Marine Le Pen.
Trained as a lawyer, she built her regional presence in the north of the country, long won over to the left, then took over the presidency of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s party, the National Front, in early 2011, gradually pushing aside the old barons, and deconstructing patiently what the patriarch had built with anti-Semitic or racist harangues, sometimes condemned in court.
The “de-demonization” of the FN went as far as the exclusion in 2015 of the father, whose remarks were too divisive to allow a national victory. “I adored this man,” she says. “I fought a lot for him, but at some point it had to stop.”
The FN with a sinister reputation became “National Rally” in 2018, and has since campaigned on its first name, Marine, preferred to its heavily connoted surname.
After her failure in 2017, and a disastrous electoral debate between two rounds where her unpreparedness and her feverishness had appeared obvious in the face of Emmanuel Macron, Ms. Le Pen patiently recovered and polished her speech.
During a new duel with Emmanuel Macron last Wednesday, this time she resisted much better.
Basically, the “national preference” has become the “national priority”, the theme of purchasing power has taken precedence over migration and identity issues, there is no longer any official question of an exit from France. of the EU.
She blurred the lines, proclaiming herself the “best shield” of French Jews, paying homage to Charles de Gaulle whom the far right hated, displaying the Republic and secularism as a banner once morest “Islamist fundamentalism”, but judging Islam “compatible with the Republic”.
On the form, this mother of three children, twice divorced, stored her aggressiveness, engaged in the game of intimate television confidences, evoked her love for cats. She poses as a unifying candidate for “Quiet France” once morest an Emmanuel Macron president of “chaos”.
First worried by the breakthrough of another far-right candidate, Éric Zemmour, she actually took advantage of the radical and outrageous speech of the former polemicist. By rehashing her identity, anti-immigration and anti-Islam themes, Zemmour (7% in the first round) helped to refocus and moderate the image of Mrs. Le Pen, who campaigned on purchasing power, the primary concern of French when the war in Ukraine sent prices soaring.
However, the change is only a facade, believe many analysts. “Her program has hardly changed on the fundamentals of the FN such as immigration and national identity, but she has chosen another vocabulary to justify it”, estimates for example Cécile Alduy, specialist in the far right.
On the migratory level, its program has even “hardened” since 2010, recently pointed out a study by the Jean-Jaurès Foundation.
Marine Le Pen plans for 2022 to include in the Constitution the “national priority” which will deprive foreigners of several benefits. She also wants, like Éric Zemmour, to expel illegal immigrants, criminals and foreign delinquents, those suspected of radicalization as well as foreigners who have been unemployed for more than a year.
She wants to enshrine in the Constitution the primacy of French law over international law – which would put France in a potentially untenable position vis-à-vis Europe -, and intends to ban the wearing of the veil in public space, punishable by fine.
Internationally, Marine Le Pen is accused by her adversaries of complacency with Putin’s Russia even though she condemned the invasion of Ukraine. She supports the idea of “anchoring Russia to Europe”, so that this country “does not go into the arms of China”. The candidate, who has forged personal ties with Russia, has also cultivated close ties with so-called populist leaders in central Europe, including Viktor Orban in Hungary.
