Marine Le Pen

NationalismAnti MuslimAnti-ArabAnti-immigrantPopulism

Aug 14

**DOB:** 5 August 1968

**Nationality:** French

**Location:** Paris, France
**Ideology/Affiliation:** Far-right/Anti-Muslim/
Anti-Immigrants/Nationalism

**Type of Leader:** Propagandist/Essayist/
Political leader

Current status: French lawyer, politician, and former presidential candidate

Biography

Marine Le Pen, who is the youngest of three daughters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, a Breton politician and former paratrooper, is a French lawyer, politician, and former President of the National Rally. Additionally, she has been a member of the National Assembly since 2017. Le Pen earned a Master of Laws in 1991 and a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) in criminal law in 1992 from Panthéon-Assas University.

Le Pen joined the Front National Party (FN) when she was 18 years old, in 1986. She was elected to her first political position as a Regional Councillor for Nord-Pas-de-Calais in 1988. In the same year, she became the head of the FN’s legal department, which she oversaw until 2003.

In 2000, she was elected to the FN Executive Committee; in 2003, she was elected Vice-President. In 2006, she ran her father’s presidential campaign and went on to become one of the FN’s two executive vice presidents in 2007. In 2010, Le Pen revealed her intention to run for FN leadership elections in early 2010, stating that she aimed for “a big popular party that addresses itself not only to the electorate on the right but to all the French people.” As such, she executed her campaign for the presidency in September 2010.

In January 2011, Marine Le Pen was chosen as the new president of the FN with 67.65% of the total votes, and her father was named honorary chairman of the party.

In September 2011, Le Pen launched her first French presidential campaign opposing the former French presidents Nicholas Sarkozy and François Hollande but lost to the latter. In 2017, she announced her second candidacy and her first campaign appearance on France 2 drew the highest ratings on the channel since the last presidential election in 2012.

However, Emmanuel Macron defeated her. The poor performance in the debate contributed to her vote share of 33.9%, which was lower than any poll predicted. Consequently, she immediately announced a full transformation of the FN party.

Le Pen announced her third presidential candidacy for France in the 2022 presidential election against Eric Zemmour (read his profile here), among other candidates, and her campaign was launched on 15 January 2022.

Le Pen has been frequently criticised for inciting hatred against immigrants and the French Muslim community in particular. Her extremist remarks received substantial media attention.

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Marine Le Pen

Evidence of Hate Speech/Incitement:

January 2021: Le Pen advocated for the banning of Muslim headscarves in all public venues across France - “I consider that the headscarf is an Islamist item of clothing,” and vowed to ban the wearing of the veil. She also claimed that the “Islamist offensive” is part of “a total war being waged against us”. She even proposed a new law to ban “Islamist ideologies” which she called “totalitarian and murderous.”

April 2017: During one of her conferences, Le Pen aggressively incited hatred by stating that the French colonisation and occupation of Algeria resulted in many great outcomes for the nation, claiming that only good-will Algerians would recognise that. Millions of Algerians lost their lives during the French colonial project in Algeria.

April 2017: In one of her presidential campaign speeches, Le Pen clearly stated, if elected, she would prohibit halal slaughtering of animals, as well as any other style of ceremonial slaughter performed without stunning - “Furthermore, I think that slaughter without stunning should be prohibited.”

October 2015: Le Pen faced charges of inciting racial hatred after comparing Muslims praying in the street to the Nazi occupation. The incident dates back to 2010, just months before she became leader of FN. She spoke out about Muslims worshipping in the streets because mosques were full, saying: “I’m sorry, but some people are very fond of talking about the Second World War and about the occupation, so let’s talk about occupation because that is what is happening here [referring to Muslim worshippers],” she told the FN crowd. “There are no tanks, no soldiers, but it is still an occupation, and it weighs on people,” she added.

Extremist Individuals - Right Wing Extremists