Is the longest-running political dynasty on Europe’s far right finally running out of road? After her defeat by Emmanuel Macron in the presidential run-off of 2017, Marine Le Pen decided to double down on attempts to detoxify the Front National (FN) movement founded by her father, Jean-Marie, in 1972. The party’s name was changed to the more innocuous-sounding Rassemblement National (National Rally) and its hostility to the European Union and the euro was toned down. During the current election campaign, Ms Le Pen has focused on blue-collar issues and economic nationalism. Having tempered the xenophobic rhetoric and culture-warrior persona, last month she said that she had “definitively broken with provocations” that were “the sins of our political family”.
It is generally accepted that this strategy – and this election campaign – represent Ms Le Pen’s last throw of the dice. So far, her numbers are not coming up. In a disastrous beginning to the year, she has endured a number of high-profile defections to the camp of her more extreme rival on the far right, Éric Zemmour. Most damagingly of all, her charismatic niece Marion Maréchal, a former FN MP, last week signalled both her sympathy for Mr Zemmour’s old-school approach and her desire to return to the political stage after a five-year break. Ms Maréchal is far more socially conservative than her aunt, whom she has reportedly not spoken to for some time. In an extraordinary television interview, Ms Le Pen seemed on the point of tears as she described her intervention as “brutal” and “violent”.
