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The National Rally (, , RN), known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 (, , FN), is a French far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and nationalist. It is the single largest parliamentary opposition party in the National Assembly since 2022. It opposes immigration, advocating significant cuts to legal immigration, protection of French identity, and stricter control of illegal immigration. The party advocates a "more balanced" and "independent" French foreign policy, opposing French military intervention in Africa while supporting France leaving NATO's integrated command. It also supports reform of the European Union (EU), economic interventionism, protectionism, and zero tolerance for breaches of law and order.
The party was founded in 1972 by the Ordre Nouveau to be the legitimate political vehicle for the far-right movement. Jean-Marie Le Pen was its founder and leader until his resignation in 2011. While its influence was marginal until 1984, the party's role as a nationalist electoral force has grown considerably. It has put forward a candidate at every presidential election but one since 1974. In the 2002 presidential election, Jean-Marie Le Pen advanced to the second round but finished a distant second in the runoff to Jacques Chirac. His daughter Marine Le Pen was elected to succeed him as party leader in 2012. Jordan Bardella assumed the leadership in 2022.
The party has seen an increase in its popularity and acceptance in French society in recent years. It has been accused of promoting xenophobia and antisemitism. While her father was nicknamed the "Devil of the Republic" by mainstream media and sparked outrage for hate speech, including Holocaust denial and Islamophobia, Marine Le Pen pursued a policy of "de-demonisation", trying to frame the party as being neither right nor left.Softening image:
Devil of the Republic:
Holocaust denial:
Islamophobia:
She endeavoured to extract it from its far-right roots, as well as censuring controversial members like her father, who was suspended and then expelled from the party in 2015.Jean-Marie suspension and expulsion:
(1994). 9782020232005, Éditions du Seuil. ISBN 9782020232005
(2020). 9780691194752, Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691194752
(1995). 9780472106639, University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472106639
(1997). 9780472084418, University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472084418
(2019). 9781509536856, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781509536856
(2025). 9781349284764, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781349284764
though some outlets argue it has substantially moderated from its years under Le Pen to be classified as "right-wing populist" or "nationalist right".
At the FN congress of 2018, Marine Le Pen proposed renaming the party Rassemblement National (National Rally), and this was confirmed by a ballot of party members. Formerly strongly Eurosceptic, the National Rally changed policies in 2019, deciding to campaign for a reform of the EU rather than leaving it and to keep the euro as the main currency of France (together with the CFP franc for some collectivities). In 2021, Le Pen announced that she wanted to remain in the Schengen Area, but to reserve free movement to nationals of a European Economic Area country, excluding residents of and visitors from another Schengen country.
Le Pen reached the second round of the 2017 presidential election, receiving 33.9% of the votes in the run-off and losing to Emmanuel Macron. Again in the 2022 election, she lost to Macron in the run-off, receiving 41.45% of the votes. In the 2022 parliamentary elections, the National Rally achieved a significant increase in the number of its MPs in the National Assembly, from 7 to 89 seats. In June 2024, the party won the European Parliament elections in a landslide with 31.4% of the votes. This caused Macron to announce a snap election. Later that month, an RN-led right-wing coalition topped the first round of the snap French legislative election with a record 33.2% of the votes. On 7 July, the RN also won the popular vote (37.06%) in the second round of the snap election, but only won the third highest number of seats.
On 31 March 2025, 25 National Rally members (including Le Pen, former MEPs, and their assistants) were convicted of embezzlement for using European Parliament funds to fund National Front staff from 2004 to 2016. The sentences for several MEPs, including Le Pen, included bans on running for political office.
Espousing France's Catholic and monarchist traditions, one of the primary progenitors of the ideology generally promoted by FN was the Action Française, founded at the end of the 19th century, and its descendants in the Restauration Nationale, a pro-monarchy group that supports the claim of the Count of Paris to the French throne.
The National Front fared poorly in the 1973 legislative elections, receiving 0.5% of the national vote, although Le Pen won 5% in his Paris constituency. In 1973, the party created a youth movement, the Front national de la jeunesse (National Front of Youth; FNJ). The rhetoric used in the campaign stressed old, far-right themes and was largely uninspiring to the electorate at the time. Otherwise, its official program at this point was relatively moderate, differing little from the mainstream right's. Le Pen sought the "total fusion" of the currents in the party, and warned against "crude activism." The FNJ were banned from the party later that year. The move towards the mainstream cost it many leading members and much of its militant base.
In the 1974 presidential election, Le Pen failed to find a mobilising theme for his campaign, since many of its platform's major issues, such as anti-communism, were shared by most of the mainstream right. Other FN issues included calls for increased French birth rates, immigration reduction (although this was downplayed), establishment of a professional army, abrogation of the Évian Accords, and generally the creation of a "French and European renaissance." Despite being the only nationalist candidate, he failed to gain the support of the whole of the far-right, as the various groups either rallied behind other candidates or called for voter abstention. The campaign further lost ground when the Revolutionary Communist League made public a report of Le Pen's alleged involvement in torture during his time in Algeria. In his first participation in a presidential election, Le Pen won only 0.8% of the national vote.
For the 1981 presidential election, both Le Pen and Pascal Gauchon of the PFN declared their intentions to run. However, an increased requirement regarding obtaining signatures of support from elected officials had been introduced for the election, which left both Le Pen and Gauchon unable to participate.
The election was won by François Mitterrand of the Socialist Party (PS), a results that brought the political left to national power for the first time in the Fifth Republic; Mitterrand immediately dissolved the National Assembly and called a snap legislative election. With only three weeks to prepare its campaign, the FN fielded only a limited number of candidates and won only 0.2% of the national vote. The PFN was even worse off, and the election marked the effective end of competition from the party. The Socialists attained their best ever result with an absolute majority in the 1981 legislative election.
The "socialist takeover" led to a radicalisation in centre-right, anti-communist, and anti-socialist voters.
Le Pen protested the "media boycott" against his party by sending letters to President Mitterrand in mid-1982. Following an exchange of letters with Le Pen, Mitterrand instructed the heads of the main television channels to give equitable coverage to the FN. In January 1984, the party made its first appearance in a monthly poll of political popularity, in which 9% of respondents held a "positive opinion" of the FN and some support for Le Pen personally. The next month, Le Pen was, for the first time, invited on a prime-time television interview programme, which he himself later deemed "the hour that changed everything".
In the June 1984 European elections, the FN won 11% of the vote and ten seats, in a contest that was considered to have a low level of importance by the public, which played to the party's advantage. The FN, notably, made inroads in both right-wing and left-wing constituencies, and finished 2nd in a number of towns. While many Socialists had arguably exploited the party in order to divide the right, Mitterrand later conceded that he had underestimated Le Pen. By July, 17% of opinion poll respondents held a positive opinion of the FN.
By the early 1980s, the FN featured a mosaic of ideological tendencies and attracted figures who were previously resistant to the party. The party managed to draw supporters from the mainstream right, including some high-profile defectors from the RPR, the UDF, and the National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP). In the 1984 European elections, eleven of the 81 FN candidates came from these parties, while the party's list also included an Arab and a Jew - although in unwinnable positions. Former collaborators were also accepted in the party, as Le Pen urged the need for "reconciliation", arguing that forty years after the war the only important question was whether or not "they wish to serve their country". The FN won 8.7% overall support in the 1985 cantonal elections, netting over 30% in some areas.
For the 1986 legislative elections, the FN took advantage of the new, proportional representation system and won 9.8% of the vote and 35 seats in the National Assembly. Many of these seats were filled by a new wave of "respectable" political operatives, notables, who had joined the party after its 1984 success. The RPR won a majority with smaller, centre-right parties, and thus avoided the need to deal with the FN. Although FN was unable to exercise any real political influence, the party could project an image of political legitimacy. Several of its legislative proposals were controversial and had a socially reactionary and xenophobic character, among them attempts to restore the death penalty, expel foreigners who "proportionally committed more crimes than the French", restrict naturalisation, introduce a "national preference" for employment, impose taxes on the hiring of foreigners by French companies, and privatise Agence France-Presse.
The party's time in the National Assembly effectively came to an end when Jacques Chirac reinstated the two-round system of majority voting for the next election. In the regional elections held on the same day, FN won 137 seats, and gained representation in 21 of the 22 French regional councils. The RPR depended on FN support to win presidencies in some regional councils, and the FN won vice-presidential posts in four regions.
In the snap 1988 legislative elections, the FN was hurt by the return two-ballot majority voting, by the limited campaign period, and by the departure of many notables. In the election, the party retained its 9.8% support from the previous legislative election, but was reduced to a single seat in the National Assembly. Following some anti-Semitism comments made by Le Pen and the FN newspaper National Hebdo in the late 1980s, some valuable FN politicians left the party. Soon, other quarrels left the party without its remaining member of the National Assembly. In November 1988, general secretary Jean-Pierre Stirbois, who, together with his wife Marie-France, had been instrumental in the FN's early electoral successes, died in a car accident, leaving Bruno Mégret as the unrivalled, de facto FN deputy leader. The party only got 5% in the 1988 cantonal elections, while the RPR announced it would reject any alliance with the FN, a rejections that now included the local level.
In the 1989 European elections, the FN held on to its ten seats, winning 11.7% of the vote.
In the wake of FN's electoral success, the immigration debate, growing concerns over Islamic fundamentalism, and the fatwa against Salman Rushdie by Ayatollah Khomeini, the 1989 affaire du foulard was the first major test of the relations between the values of the French Republic and Islam. Following that success, surveys found that French public opinion was largely negative towards Islam. In a 1989 legislative by-election in Dreux, FN candidate Marie-France Stirbois, campaigning mostly on an anti-Islamism platform, returned a symbolic FN presence to the National Assembly. By the early 1990s, some mainstream politicians began also employing anti-immigration rhetoric. In the first round of the 1993 legislative elections, the FN soared to 12.7% of the overall vote, but did not win a single seat due to the nature of the electoral system. In the 1995 presidential election, votes for Le Pen rose to 15% of the total.
The FN won an absolute majority (and thus the mayorship) in three cities in the 1995 municipal elections: Toulon, Marignane, and Orange. Le Pen then declared that his party would implement its "national preference" policy, with the risk of provoking the central government and being at odds with the laws of the Republic. The FN's elected representatives pursued interventionist policies with regards to the new cultural complexion of their towns by directly influencing artistic events, cinema schedules, and library holdings, as well as cutting or halting subsidies for multicultural associations. The party won Vitrolles, its fourth town, in a 1997 by-election, where similar policies were subsequently pursued. Vitrolles' new mayor , who ran in place of her husband Bruno, went further in one significant measure, introducing a special 5,000-French franc allowance for babies born to at least one parent of French (or EU) nationality. The measure was ruled illegal by a court, which sentenced her to a suspended prison sentence, a fine, and a two-year ban from office.
Mégret and his faction left the FN in January 1999 and founded the National Republican Movement (MNR), effectively splitting the FN in half at most levels. (2025). 9780199205165, Oxford University. ISBN 9780199205165 Many of those who joined the new MNR had joined the FN in the mid-1980s, in part from the Nouvelle Droite, with a vision of building bridges to the parliamentary right. Many had also been particularly influential in intellectualising the FN's policies on immigration, identity, and "national preference". Following the split, Le Pen denounced them as "extremist" and "racist". Support for the two parties was almost equal in the 1999 European election, as the FN polled its lowest national score since 1984 with just 5.7%, and the MNR won 3.3%. The effects of the split, and competition from more moderate nationalists, resulted in their combined support being lower than the FN result of 1984.
For the 2007 presidential election, Le Pen and Mégret agreed to join forces. Le Pen came 4th in the election with 11% of the vote, and the party won no seats in the legislative election of the same year. The party's 4.3% support was the lowest score since the 1981 election and only one candidate, Marine Le Pen in Pas de Calais, reached the runoff -where she was defeated by the Socialist incumbent. These electoral defeats partly accounted for the party's financial problems. Le Pen announced the sale of the FN headquarters in Saint-Cloud, Le Paquebot, and of his personal armoured car. In 2008, a French court handed Le Pen a three-month suspended sentence and a €10,000 fine for remarks he made in 2005 that contravened France's law against Holocaust denial. Twenty permanent employees of the FN were also dismissed in 2008.
In the 2010 regional elections the FN appeared to have re-emerged on the political scene after surprisingly winning almost 12% of the overall vote and 118 seats.
At the end of 2011, the National Front withdrew from the far-right Alliance of European National Movements and joined the more moderate European Alliance of Freedom. In October 2013, Bruno Gollnisch and Jean-Marie Le Pen resigned from their position in the AENM.
For the 2012 presidential election, opinion polls showed Marine Le Pen as a serious challenger, with a few polls even suggesting that she could win the first round of the election. In the event, Le Pen came 3rd in the first round, scoring 17.9% – the best showing ever in a presidential election for the FN at that time.
In the 2012 legislative election, the National Front won two seats: Gilbert Collard and Marion Maréchal.
In two polls about presidential favourites, conducted in April and May 2013, Marine le Pen polled ahead of president François Hollande but behind Nicolas Sarkozy.
The National Front received 4,712,461 votes in the 2014 European Parliament election, finishing first with 24.86% of the vote and 24 of France's 74 seats.[1] This was said to be "the first time the anti-immigrant, anti-EU party had won a nationwide election in its four-decade history." The party's success came as a "shock" in France and the EU.
During the following parliamentary elections, the FN received 13.02% of the vote, a little lower than the 13.07% of the 2012 elections. The party appeared to have suffered from a demobilisation of its voters from the previous vote. Nonetheless, eight deputies (six FN and two affiliated) were elected, the best number for the FN in a parliamentary election using a majoritarian electoral system since its creation. Marine Le Pen was elected to the National Assembly for the first time, while Gilbert Collard was re-elected. FN's 23-year-old Ludovic Pajot became the youngest ever member of the French parliament.
In late 2017, Florian Philippot left the FN and formed The Patriots, on the grounds that the FN had "softened" its position on leaving the EU and abandoning the Euro.Louise Nordstorm, Les Patriotes: How Le Pen's ex-protégé hopes to win over French far right . France 24, 18 December 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
In 2018, Steve Bannon, former advisor to Donald Trump before and after his 2016 election, gave what has been described as a "populist pep talk". Bannon advised the party members to "Let them call you racist, let them call you xenophobes, let them call you nativists. Wear it like a badge of honor. Because every day, we get stronger and they get weaker. ... History is on our side and will bring us victory." Bannon's remarks brought the members to their feet.Willsher, Kim (10 March 2018) "Steve Bannon tells French far-right 'history is on our side'" The GuardianGanley, Elaine (10 March 2018) "Steve Bannon told a French far-right party to wear the 'racist' label 'as a badge of honor'" Associated Press via Business Insider
In January 2019, ex-Sarkozy minister Thierry Mariani and former conservative lawmaker Jean-Paul Garraud, left Les Républicains (LR) and joined the National Rally.
During a 2021 debate, Marine Le Pen was called "soft" on Islam by the Minister of the Interior in Macron's government, Gérald Darmanin. Marine Le Pen called for a "national-unity government" that would include persons such as Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, former LR officials, and Souverainism on the left, such as former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg.
In the months before the 2021 French regional elections, political commentators noted an increased moderation in the FN's platform that aimed to attract conservative voters, as well as a new image being promoted by the party as a force of la droite populaire, i.e. the popular right, the social right. The party, nonetheless, fared badly in these elections.
In the 2022 French presidential election, Le Pen again reached the 2nd round with 23.15% of the votes, though she was defeated by incumbent Macron, after receiving 41.45% of the votes in the run-off. Marine Le Pen received 13 million votes in the second round, more than double the 5.25 million Jean Marie Le Pen received in 2002.
In the 2022 French legislative election, for which polling had indicated that FN would win only between 15 and 45 seats in the National Assembly, the party received 18.68% of the votes in the first round and won 89 seats in the second round, a significant increase from the previous total of 8 seats. The 89 seats enabled the National Rally to form a parliamentary group, for which at least 15 deputies are required, for the first time since 1986, when the national assembly was elected by proportional voting. The result made the party the 3rd largest party in the assembly and the largest parliamentary opposition group.
The National Rally's success in the European elections led to the dissolution of the French lower house by Emmanuel Macron on 9 June 2024.
Based on their first round performance, the RN will receive around €15 million per year in government subsidies for the next five years: each vote in the first round was worth €1.61 per year to the party.
According to opinion polls, the National Rally were expected to get 230-270 seats, close to an absolute majority, However, 2–3 days before the second round, the RN were predicted to win around 170-220 seats. After the exit polls on 7 July, that figure was reduced to 120–170 seats, and the New Popular Front were predicted to win 150–190 seats, slightly ahead of president Macron's Ensemble alliance. Finally, the RN won only 142 seats, ranking third in the election.
The National Rally won vast swathes of southern France, including every seat in the departement of Gard.
The FN has changed considerably since its foundation, pursuing the principles of modernisation and pragmatism and adapting to the changing political climate. Its message increasingly influenced mainstream political parties, and some commentators described it as right-wing, moving closer towards the centre-right. In the 2010s, the party attempted to "de-demonise" its image and changed its name to National Rally. A 2022 Kanar survey found that 46% of French voters saw Marine Le Pen as "representing a patriotic Right attached to traditional values", although 50% saw her as "a danger to democracy".
In the 2002 legislative elections, the first under the new gender parity provision in the French Constitution, Le Pen's National Front was among the few parties to come close to meeting the law, with 49% female candidates; Jospin's Socialists had 36%, and Chirac's UMP had 19.6%. Women voters in France were traditionally more attracted to mainstream conservative parties than the radical right until the 2000s. The proportion of women in the party has risen to 39% by 2017.
Marine Le Pen rescinded the party's traditional support for the death penalty with her 2017 campaign launch, instead announcing support for imprisonment "in perpetuity" for the "worst crimes" in February 2017. In 2022, she proposed to hold a referendum on capital punishment in France if she were elected.
After the 1999 split, the FN cultivated a more moderate image on immigration and Islam, no longer calling for the systematic repatriation of legal immigrants but still supporting the deportation of illegal, criminal, or unemployed immigrants.
Following the Arab Spring (2011) rebellions in several countries, Marine Le Pen campaigned for a halt to the migration of Tunisian and Libyan immigrants to Europe.
In November 2015, the party stated its goal to have a net legal immigration rate (immigrants minus emigrants) of 10,000 in France per year. Since 2017, that yearly net immigration rate was around 182,000 if one takes into account only people born abroad from non-French parents, but was around 44,000 if one also includes the departures and returns of French expatriates. 'Immigration: Le FN précise ses objectifs chiffrés (et ça change beaucoup)' ('FN defines more precisely its numerical immigration objectives (and that makes a great difference))' . 20minutes.fr, 5 November 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
In 2022, Marine Le Pen proposed an end to "family reunification" rights for foreigners with residency permits and the end to the right to automatic citizenship for children born in France to foreigners living there. She also supported a referendum on immigration policy.
The National Rally is considered Islamophobic by many. The party has connected immigration to Islamic terrorism.
The party's economic policy shifted from the 1980s to the 1990s from neoliberalism to protectionism. This occurred within the framework of a changed international environment, from a battle between the Free World and Communism, to one between nationalism and globalisation. During the 1980s, Jean-Marie Le Pen complained about the rising number of "social parasites" and called for deregulation, tax cuts, and the phasing-out of the welfare state. As the party gained growing support from the economically vulnerable, it converted towards politics of social welfare and economic protectionism. This was part of its shift away from its former claim of being the "social, popular, and national right" to its claim of being "neither right nor left – French!" Increasingly, the party's program became an amalgam of free market and welfare policies. By the 2010s, some political commentators described its economic policies as left-wing.
Under Marine Le Pen, the RN has supported economic nationalism, which it calls "economic patriotism", and it has advocated populist policies, such as tax cuts for people under 30 years old, and cuts in the value-added tax on energy and essential products. The party has supported public services, protectionism, and economic intervention and opposed the increase in the fuel tax in 2018 and the increase in the retirement age in 2023.
Under Jordan Bardella, the RN has adopted more pro-market policies, including lower taxes and simplifying industrial norms. Bardella advocated an audit of public finances as a precursor to determining the 2025 budget. Bardella has sought to use these policies to court business support during the 2024 French legislative election campaign. During this time, Bardella also rescinded the prior RN pledge to repeal the 2023 French pension reform law. Bardella has been described as advocating economic liberalism, putting him in conflict with the economic vision of Marine Le Pen.
Marine Le Pen advocated France leaving the euro, although that policy was dropped in 2019. She also intends to reintroduce Customs area and has campaigned against allowing dual citizenship. During both the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis and the 2011 Libyan civil war, she opposed the French military involvements. However, the party supported the 2013 Operation Serval in Mali against Islamist militants in the country because it was at the request of the Malian government.
Le Pen has praised Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for "fighting radical Islam", stating that Egypt's "ability to separate extremist Islam from the religion sets an example to the rest of the world, including France, of how to deal with poisonous ideologies". The party has also favourably contrasted the United Arab Emirates's opposition to Islamism with the more pro-Islamist position taken by Qatar. The party has advocated closer France–Morocco relations, criticising Macron's attempts to deepen ties with Algeria. In January 2023, the National Rally was one of only four parties in the European Parliament that voted against a resolution condemning Morocco's treatment of journalist Omar Radi. It praised the 2024 recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara and suggested the French government should have acted sooner.
Le Pen supports the restoration of France-Syria relations and called for cooperation with Israel, the United States, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia to support the economic recovery of Lebanon from the Lebanese economic crisis.
The party supports a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and welcomed the Abraham Accords. The party has shifted towards more pro-Israel policies over time, particularly following the Gaza war. Bardella has expressed opposition to recognition of Palestinian statehood following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, on the grounds that this would be "recognising terrorism". Following the 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Le Pen suggested that a ceasefire would be impossible without the "dismantling" of Hezbollah. Following the June 2025 Israeli strikes on Iran, Bardella called for France to "stand alongside Israel" and claimed that Iran acquiring nuclear weapons would threaten world peace, while suggesting that France's role was to promote "peace and de-escalation". The National Rally welcomed the subsequent United States strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, but noted that strikes on Iran should be exclusively targeted at nuclear sites.
Luke Harding wrote in The Guardian that the National Front's MEPs were a "pro-Russian bloc." In 2014, the Nouvel Observateur said that the Russian government considered the National Front "capable of seizing power in France and changing the course of European history in Moscow's favour." According to the French media, party leaders had frequent contact with Russian ambassador Alexander Orlov and Marine Le Pen made multiple trips to Moscow. In May 2015, one of her advisers, Emmanuel Leroy, attended an event in Donetsk marking the "independence" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
The RN remains divided on relations with Russia, with Bardella stating that he believed Russia threatened French security. At the same time, Thierry Mariani suggested it was not a threat to France or Europe. The more pro-Russian Mariani has been described as in conflict with Pierre-Romain Thionnet, who has advocated a more pro-Ukrainian line, with Bardella maintaining a balance between the two positions.
During the 2022 French presidential election, Le Pen supported sending non-lethal defensive aid to Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War, but not heavy weapons that would make France a "co-belligerent" in the conflict. Similarly, Bardella has expressed support for defense equipment, ammunition, and logistical assistance to Ukraine but maintains opposition to giving long-range missiles to Ukraine or deploying French soldiers there. He is also opposed to Ukrainian NATO membership, suggesting it could escalate the war.
The party advocates referendums on key issues such as the death penalty, immigration policy, and constitutional change. In 2022, Marine Le Pen stated: "I want the referendum to become a classic operating tool."
During the 2012 presidential election, Marine Le Pen sought the support of Jewish people in France. Interviewed by the daily newspaper Haaretz about the fact that some of her European senior colleagues had formed alliances with, and visited, some Israeli settlers and groups, Marine Le Pen said:
On 31 March 2025, 25 National Rally members (including Le Pen, 9 other former NR MEPs, and 12 assistants) were found guilty. The sentences for Le Pen and several former MEPs included bans from running for political office.
In March 2018, the position of vice-president replaced that of General Secretary. It became a duo in June 2019:
From 1999 to 2001, the FN was a member of the Technical Group of Independents. In 2007, it was part of the short-lived Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty group. Between the mentioned groups, the party sat among the non-affiliated Non-Inscrits. It was part of the Identity and Democracy group.
It was formerly known as the Europe of Nations and Freedom group, during which time it also included the Polish Congress of the New Right, a former member of the UK Independence Party and a former member of Romania's Conservative Party. The RN has also been part of the Identity and Democracy Party (formerly the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom) since 2014, which additionally includes Slovakia's We Are Family and the Bulgarian Volya Movement, which was later renamed Patriots.eu. After the 2024 European Parliament election, the National Rally joined the Patriots for Europe group with Fidesz, Vox, the Czech ANO 2011, the Portuguese Chega, the Greek Voice of Reason, Latvia First and most former ID members, with Bardella ultimately chairing the group.
During Jean-Marie Le Pen's presidency, the party has also been active in establishing extra-parliamentary confederations. During the FN's 1997 national congress, the FN established the loose Euronat group, which consisted of a variety of European right-wing parties. Having failed to cooperate in the European Parliament, Le Pen sought in the mid-1990s to initiate contacts with other far-right parties, including from non-EU countries. The FN drew most support in Central and Eastern Europe, and Le Pen visited the Turkish Welfare Party. The significant Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) refused to join the efforts, as Jörg Haider sought to distance himself from Le Pen, and later attempted to build a separate group. In 2009, the FN joined the Alliance of European National Movements; it left the alliance since. Along with some other European parties, the FN in 2010 visited Japan's Issuikai ("right-wing") movement and the Yasukuni Shrine.
During her 2012 visit to the United States, Marine Le Pen met two Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives associated with the Tea Party movement, Joe Walsh, who is known for his strong stance against Islam, which Domenic Powell argues, rises to Islamophobia and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul, whom Le Pen complimented for his stance on the gold standard. In February 2017, two more conservative Republican Congressmen, Steve King and Dana Rohrabacher, also met with Le Pen in Paris.
The party also has ties to Steve Bannon, who served as White House Chief Strategist under President Donald Trump, and addressed an RN event in 2018.
The FN allied with the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) in November 2013, after years of the PVV rejecting collaboration with the FN. Similarly, in December 2013, the FN formed an alliance with Matteo Salvini, the new leader of the Lega Nord, which had previously eschewed cooperation with the FN when it was led by Umberto Bossi.
In 2014, UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage was critical of the FN, claiming that the FN's association with "anti-Semitism and general prejudice" made it impossible for UKIP to join Le Pen's efforts for a united right-wing populist European Parliament group despite an invitation from PVV leader Wilders.
In 2017, Marine Le Pen met with and was interviewed for the British radio station LBC by Farage, who praised Le Pen and expressed support for her presidential bid. Prior to the 2019 European Parliament election, Farage's Brexit Party initially considered forming a joint group in the next European Parliament, but ultimately once again declined. In 2024, Farage, in his capacity as the leader of Reform UK, distanced himself from the RN, describing its economic agenda as a "disaster" for France.
Though the FN had close contacts with Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) from 2013 onwards, the relationship between the RN and FdI became strained in 2022, after Meloni publicly declined to support Le Pen's 2022 presidential bid.
In 2023, Meloni complained to French President Emmanuel Macron after he compared her to Le Pen, while Le Pen criticised Meloni's illegal immigration policies.
However, in early 2024, Le Pen and Meloni made overtures to one another, declining to rule out future cooperation between their parties. In July 2024, Meloni praised Le Pen's alliance with Eric Ciotti and Marion Maréchal during the 2024 French legislative election, congratulated the RN on its success in the first round of the election, and expressed preference for the right-wing alliance in the second round of the election.
In addition, the party has had relations with Krasimir Karakachanov's IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement in 2014 and Nenad Popović's Serbian People's Party since 2021. The RN was critical of the decision to allow the Bulgarian Revival to join the ID Party in 2024.
Since 2018, the RN has had relations with Santiago Abascal's Vox in Spain. In 2024, Vox had Le Pen address its conference, despite Vox being a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group; after the election, Vox joined the RN in Patriots for Europe.
In 2019, RN MEPs participated in the first international delegation to visit India's Jammu and Kashmir following the decision by Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party government to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The delegation was not sanctioned by the European Parliament, and consisted mostly of right-wing populist politicians including MEPs from Vox, AfD, the Northern League, Vlaams Belang, the British Brexit Party, and Poland's Law and Justice party.
Relations with the AfD deteriorated in early 2024, following Le Pen's disagreements with the AfD members' discussions over remigration and the AfD questioning French control of Mayotte. In May 2024, the RN announced it would end its alliance with the AfD in the next European Parliament term.
During the 2024 French legislative election, Israeli minister Amichai Chikli expressed support for Le Pen and the National Rally, and suggested that Likud leader and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared his views, prompting a rebuke by President Macron. Chikli later described his relations with the RN, stating it was "natural that conservative leaders will have good relations with conservative leaders all across the globe".
During and after the 2024 United States presidential election, the National Rally distanced itself from Trump, banning its MPs from commenting on the election.
Economy
At the end of the 1970s, Jean-Marie Le Pen broke away from the anti-capitalist heritage of Poujadism and espoused a market liberal and Anti-statism programme which included lower taxes, reducing state intervention, reducing the size of the public sector, privatisation, and scaling back government bureaucracy. Some scholars have characterised the FN's 1978 programme as "Reaganomics before Ronald Reagan".
Climate
Le Pen does not plan to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement but has stated that climate change is "not the priority" of the party. The party is against measures to tackle climate change and protecting the environment. The National Rally has proposed abolition of the European Green Deal, highlighting key policies it opposes such as the 2035 ban on fossil fuel cars.
Foreign policy
From the 1980s to the 1990s, the party's policy shifted from favouring the European Union to turning against it. In 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen campaigned on pulling France out of the EU and re-introducing the franc as the country's national currency. In the early 2000s, the party denounced the Schengen, Maastricht, and Amsterdam treaties as foundations for "a supranational entity spelling the end of France." In 2004, the party criticised the EU as "the last stage on the road to world government", likening it to a "puppet of the New World Order." It also proposed breaking all institutional ties back to the Treaty of Rome while it returned to supporting a common European currency to rival the United States dollar. Further, it rejected the possible accession of Turkey to the EU. The FN was also one of several parties that backed France's 2005 rejection of the Treaty for a European Constitution. In other issues, Le Pen opposed the invasions of Iraq, led by the United States, both in the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War. He visited Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 1990 and subsequently considered him a friend.
Russia and Ukraine
Marine Le Pen described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "defender of the Christian heritage of European civilisation." The National Front considers that Ukraine has been subjugated by the United States, through the Revolution of Dignity. The National Front denounces anti-Russian feelings in Eastern Europe and the submission of Western Europe to "Washington's" interests in the region.[7] Marine Le Pen is very critical against the threats of sanctions directed by the international community against Russia: "European countries should seek a solution through diplomacy rather than making threats that could lead to an escalation." She argues that the United States is leading a new Cold War against Russia. She sees no other solution for peace in Ukraine than to organise a kind of federation that would allow each region a large degree of autonomy. She thinks Ukraine should be sovereign and free as any other nation.
European Union
Since their entry into the European Parliament in 1979, the National Rally has promoted a message of being pro-Europe but anti-EU. However, in 2019, the proposal that France leave the Eurozone and the EU was removed from the party's manifesto, which has since called for "reform from within" of the union. The party advocates that EU legislation should be initiated by the Council of the EU rather than the European Commission, and that French laws should have primacy over EU laws.
NATO
The party's stance on NATO has varied throughout the years. Under Jean-Marie Le Pen's leadership, the party advocated a complete withdrawal from the organization, while under Marine Le Pen's leadership, the party has softened its stance to advocate leaving NATO's integrated military command structure, which France joined in 2009. Jordan Bardella later added that the RN would not advocate withdrawing France from the integrated command while the Russian invasion of Ukraine was ongoing.
Electoral reform and referendums
The National Rally has advocated for full proportional representation in France, claiming that the two-round system disenfranchises voters. In early 2021, Marine Le Pen, along with centrist politician François Bayrou and green politician Julien Bayou, cosigned a letter asking President Emmanuel Macron to implement proportional representation for future elections.
Controversies
Opinions on the holocaust, and relations with Jewish groups
There has been a difference between Marine Le Pen's and her father's opinions concerning the Holocaust and Jews. In 2005, Jean-Marie Le Pen wrote in the far-right weekly magazine Rivarol that the German occupation of France "was not particularly inhumane, even if there were a few blunders, inevitable in a country of 640,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq. mi.)" and in 1987 referred to the Nazi gas chambers as "a point of detail of the history of the Second World War". He has repeated the latter claim several times. In 2004, Bruno Gollnisch said: "I do not question the existence of concentration camps, but historians could discuss the number of deaths. As to the existence of gas chambers, it is up to historians to determine". Jean-Marie Le Pen was fined for these remarks, but Gollnisch was found not guilty by the Court of Cassation. The leader of the party, Marine Le Pen, distanced herself for a time from the party machine in protest at her father's comments. In response to her father's remarks, Marine Le Pen referred to the Holocaust as the "abomination of abominations".
The shared concern about radical Islam explains the relationship ... but it is possible that behind it is also the need of the visitors from Europe to change their image in their countries ... As far as their partners in Israel are concerned, I myself don't understand the idea of continuing to develop the settlements. I consider it a political mistake and would like to make it clear in this context that we must have the right to criticise the policy of the State of Israel – just as we are allowed to criticise any sovereign country – without it being considered anti-Semitism. After all, the National Front has always been Zionism and always defended Israel's right to exist.
She has opposed the emigration of French Jews to Israel in response to radical Islam, explaining: "The Jews of France are Frenchmen, they're at home here, and they must stay here and not emigrate. The country is obligated to provide solutions against the development of radical Islam in problematic areas".
Czecho-Russian bank loan
In November 2014, Marine Le Pen confirmed that the party had received a €9 million loan from the First Czech Russian Bank (FCRB) in Moscow to the National Front. Senior FN officials from the party's political bureau informed Mediapart that this was the first instalment of a €40 million loan, although Marine Le Pen has disputed this. The Independent said the loans "take Moscow's attempt to influence the internal politics of the EU to a new level". Reinhard Bütikofer stated, "It's remarkable that a political party from the motherland of freedom can be funded by Putin's sphere—the largest European enemy of freedom". Marine Le Pen argued that it was not a donation from the Russian government but a loan from a private Russian bank because no other bank would give her a loan. This loan is meant to prepare future electoral campaigns and to be repaid progressively. Marine Le Pen has publicly disclosed all the rejection letters that French banks have sent to her concerning her loan requests. Since November 2014, she insists that if a French bank agrees to give her a loan, she would break her contract with the FCBR, but she has not received any other counter-propositions. Le Pen accused the banks of collusion with the government. In April 2015, a Russian hacker group published texts and emails between Timur Prokopenko, a member of Putin's administration, and Konstantin Rykov, a former Duma deputy with ties to France, discussing Russian financial support to the National Front in exchange for its support of Russia's annexation of Crimea, though this has not coalesced.
Identitarian links
A 2019 undercover investigation by Al Jazeera uncovered links between high-ranking National Rally figures and Generation Identity, a far-right Identitarian youth group. In secretly taped conversations, RN leaders endorsed goals of Generation Identity and discussed plans to "remigrate" immigrants, effectively sending them back to their countries of origin, if the RN came to power. Christelle Lechevalier, a RN Member of the European Parliament (MEP), said that many RN leaders held similar opinions as the GI, but sought to hide them from voters.
Payment of party officials with EU funds
In December 2023, 28 people, including Marine Le Pen and her father Jean Marie, were ordered to stand trial after they were charged with a scheme which involved paying National Rally party officials through European Union funds which were earmarked for European Parliament assistants.
Organization
Leadership
The executive bureau features: Jordan Bardella (president), Steeve Briois (vice-president), Louis Aliot (vice-president), David Rachline (vice-president), Kévin Pfeffer (treasurer), Julien Sanchez (spokesperson), Gilles Pennelle (regional councilor), Edwige Diaz (deputy regional councilor), Hélène Laporte, Philippe Olivier, and Jean-Paul Garraud.
Presidents
Vice Presidents
The party had five vice presidents between July 2012 and March 2018 (against three previously).
General Secretaries
The position of General Secretary was held between 1972 and 2018:
Elected representatives
As of February 2023, the National Rally has 88 MPs. They sit in the National Assembly as members of the National Rally group.
International affiliation and relations
1980s-2000s
The FN has been part of several groups in the European Parliament. The first group it helped co-establish was the European Right after the 1984 election, which also consisted of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), its early inspiration, and the Greek National Political Union. Following the 1989 election, it teamed up with the German Republicans and the Belgian Vlaams Blok in a new European Right group, while the MSI left due to the Germans' arrival. As the MSI evolved into the National Alliance, it chose to distance itself from the FN.
2010s
At a conference in 2011, the two new leaders of the FN and the FPÖ, Marine Le Pen and Heinz-Christian Strache, announced deeper cooperation between their parties. Pursuing her de-demonisation policy, in October 2011, Marine Le Pen, as new president of the National Front, joined the European Alliance for Freedom (EAF). The EAF is a pan-European sovereigntist platform founded late 2010 that is recognised by the European Parliament. The EAF has individual members linked to the Austrian Freedom Party of Heinz-Christian Strache, the UK Independence Party, and other movements such as the Sweden Democrats, Vlaams Belang (Belgian Flanders), Germany (Bürger in Wut), and Slovakia (Slovak National Party).
2020s
In October 2021, Le Pen met with Fidesz leader and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki from the Law and Justice (PiS) party, and Slovenian Democratic Party leader and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša. Both PiS and Fidesz had previously rejected cooperation with Le Pen in 2019. Orbán subsequently supported Le Pen during the 2022 French presidential election. Morawiecki later expressed openness to the RN joining the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in February 2024.
Election results
The National Front was a marginal party in 1973, the first election it participated in, but the party made its breakthrough in the 1984 European Parliament election, where it won 11% of the vote and ten MEPs. Following this election, the party's support mostly ranged from around 10 to 15%, although it saw a drop to around 5% in some late 2000s elections. Since 2010, the party's support seems to have increased towards its former heights. The party managed to advance to the final round of the 2002 French presidential election, although it failed to attract much more support after the initial first round vote. In the late 2000s the party suffered decline in elections. Under Marine Le Pen's presidency the party has increased its vote share significantly. The National Front came first in a national election for the first time during the 2014 European elections, when it gained 24% of the vote. During the 2017 presidential election the party advanced to the second round of the election for the second time, and doubled the percentage it received in the 2002 presidential election, earning 34%. In the 2019 European elections the rebranded National Rally retained its spot as first party.
National Assembly
+ National Assembly
Presidential
Regional councils
+ Regional councils
European Parliament
+European Parliament
See also Elections to the European Parliament
Congress of New Caledonia
2004 6,135 6.85% 2009 2,591 2.68% 2014 2,706 2.57% 2019 2,707 2.46%
See also
Notes
Sources
(2025). 9780674971530, Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674971530
(1997). 9780472084418, University of Michigan. ISBN 9780472084418
Further reading
External links
Categories: Official Website, Anti-immigration Politics In France, Anti-islam Political Parties In Europe, Far-right Political Parties In France, Jean-marie Le Pen, Member Parties Of The Identity And Democracy Party, Right-wing Parties In France, Right-wing Populist Parties, Right-wing Populism In France, 1972 Establishments In France, Euronat Members, Eurosceptic Parties In France, French Nationalist Parties, National Conservative Parties, Political Parties Established In 1972, Political Parties Of The French Fifth Republic
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