Marine Le Pen
_01_cropped.jpg)
Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (b. 5 August 1968 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) is a French politician and lawyer serving as president of the National Rally political party (previously named the Front National) since 2011, with a brief interruption from 25 April 2017 to 15 May 2017, until 5 November 2022. She ran for the French presidency in 2012, 2017, and 2022.
Contents
Life
Marine Le Pen is the daughter of late French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen and his first wife Pierrette Lalanne. She has been married and divorced twice: from Franck Chauffroy, a businessman, and later from Éric Iorio, a FN (Front national) local assemblyman. From her first marriage, she has three children born in 1998 and 1999.
Le Pen ran in the 2004 French regional elections in the Île-de-France région. She has been one of eight vice-presidents of the FN since April 2003.
Since she joined the FN party, she has advocated tolerance for abortion and homosexuality, which has notably angered some of the more traditional Catholic voters. She also feels anti-Semitism to be unacceptable in modern French society.
Marine Le Pen was part of the "TSM" current inside the FN (Tout sauf Mégret, Anybody But Mégret) during the 1990s crisis, along with Samuel Maréchal, Jean-Claude Martinez, Roger Holeindre, the Catholic current represented by Bernard Antony and Bruno Gollnisch, and Martine Lehideux.[1]
Since 2002, she has been the president of Generations Le Pen, an organization close to the FN, which aims "to promote the thought and works of Jean-Marie Le Pen" among youth. She was elected to the European Parliament in the 2004 elections and has been reelected in the 2009 elections.
In 2006 Jean-Marie Le Pen turned over to her the management of his presidential campaign. Within the FN, she is opposed by notable members (and former members) such as Bruno Gollnisch, Louis Aliot, Carl Lang and Jean-Claude Martinez
On 5 July 2009, Le Pen, as second candidate on Steeve Briois' list, failed in her attempt to win a municipal by-election in Hénin-Beaumont, a mining town in the industrial north. Le Pen's National Front party lost with 47.6 per cent of the votes. Time named Le Pen one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2011 and 2015. In 2016, Politico named her the second-most influential MEP in the European Parliament, after german President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz.
In 2018, she became president of the Rassemblement national. In January 2024, after months of rising polling numbers, and for the first time ever, Le Pen became the most popular politician in France according to a Verian-Epoka for Le Figaro Magazine. Le Pen once again stood for re-election in Pas-de-Calais' 11th constituency in the 2024 French legislative election.
Political mandates
Local mandates
- Regional councillor of Nord-Pas-de-Calais: (15 March 1998 – 28 March 2004); since 26 March 2010: member of the standing committee, leader of the FN group.
- Regional councillor of Île-de-France (28 March 2004 – 21 March 2010): member of the standing committee, leader of the FN group until February 2009.
- Municipal councillor of Hénin-Beaumont (23 March 2008 – 24 February 2011).
European mandates
- Member of the European Parliament in the Île-de-France constituency (20 July 2004 – 13 July 2009): Non-Inscrits (20 July 2004 – 14 January 2007/14 November 2007 – 13 July 2009); Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty (15 January 2007 – 13 November 2007).
- Member: Committee on Culture and Education (21 July 2004 – 14 January 2007/15 January 2007 – 30 January 2007), Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (31 January 2007 – 13 July 2009), Delegation for relations with Israel (15 September 2004 – 13 March 2007/14 March 2007 – 13 July 2009)
- Substitute: Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (21 July 2004 – 14 January 2007/31 January 2007 – 13 July 2009), Delegation for relations with Australia and New Zealand (15 March 2007 – 13 July 2009)[276]
- Member of the European Parliament in the North-West France constituency: Non-Inscrits (14 July 2009 – 16 June 2015); ENF
- Member: Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (since 16 July 2009), Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (since 16 September 2009)
- Substitute: Committee on International Trade (since 16 July 2009), Delegation for relations with Canada (16 September 2009 – 14 November 2010)[276][277]
Further reading
- David Merlin: Attack on Marine Le Pen is Crazy, 2018
