France: Jean-Marie Le Pen passes away, but Le Pen-ism lives on

The death of Jean-Marie Le Pen on January 7 marks the passing of one of the most polarising figures in modern French history, but it is far from the end of his influence. Senior Le Pen’s political career spanned decades of radical nationalism and incendiary rhetoric. His political ideas have seeped into the mainstream and are a pertinent reminder of how the far right has evolved, adapted, and embedded itself within the political fabric of liberal democracies. JM Le Pen’s death closes one chapter, but the battle over his ideology and its grip on French politics is far from over. Le Pen (Senior) unified disparate fascist, nationalist, and colonial-nostalgic factions into an electoral entity.

Senior Le Pen entered the French National Assembly at the age of 27 as one of the youngest MPs in the Republic’s history and quickly emerged as a prominent figure on the extreme right. In 1972, he co-founded the National Front, aimed at consolidating various extreme-right factions under a single banner. Under his leadership, the National Front adopted the strategy of leveraging grassroots support steeped in xenophobic rhetoric while striving for electoral respectability. Gradually shifting the Overton window on issues like immigration, national identity, etc… The “de-toxification” campaign may have softened the party’s image, but its core themes—nationalism, anti-immigration policies, and Euroscepticism—remain deeply aligned with his vision.

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Le Pen (Sr)’s career encapsulates the evolution of nationalist politics in post-war France—from the bitter legacies of decolonisation to the populist surges of the 21st century. Before entering politics, he served in the French Foreign Legion. He served as an intelligence officer during the Algerian War of Independence. His tenure in Algeria was marred by allegations of involvement in torture, a charge he denied throughout his life. His experiences in Algeria influenced his political ideology, particularly his staunch opposition to decolonisation and his enduring nostalgia for French colonial grandeur. The loss of Algeria in 1962 left a deep scar on Le Pen and many of his contemporaries, fuelling a sense of betrayal and decline that he would later channel into his political messaging.

Senior Le Pen’s early political career was equally emblematic of post-war far-right populism. He entered parliament on the list of Pierre Poujade, leader of the Union for the Defence of Shopkeepers and Artisans (UDCA). Le Pen’s association with Poujade laid the groundwork for his future political trajectory, as it introduced him to the language of populist grievance and anti-establishment rhetoric. The fear of losing France’s empire, combined with anxieties over Communist expansion in the colonies, provided fertile ground for uniting factions. Le Pen’s coalition was bound by a shared nostalgia for imperial glory, postcolonial resentment, and opposition to modernist social and political currents.

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By the 1980s, the National Front (FN) began making electoral breakthroughs, capitalising on economic insecurities, fears of cultural erosion, and dissatisfaction with the political establishment. The FN’s claim that it had become “the leading party of French workers” was a pointed challenge to a fragmented and ideologically fatigued left. However, a significant portion of the workers still preferred political abstention over active alignment with the FN. A pivotal moment in the FN’s rise came in 1986 when Socialist President François Mitterrand introduced proportional representation for parliamentary elections. Mitterrand intended to fragment the right-wing vote, but the unintended consequence was a significant boost for the FN. The party secured 35 parliamentary seats, and Le Pen (Sr) returned to the National Assembly. The economic malaise of the 1970s and 1980s, coupled with the challenges of globalisation and cultural integration, created fertile ground for a party that framed itself as the defender of French identity and sovereignty.

The 2002 presidential election marked a seismic moment in French political history. For the first time, Le Pen (Sr) advanced to the second round of the presidential race. In the final runoff, Jacques Chirac decisively defeated Le Pen (Sr) with an overwhelming percentage of the vote, buoyed by one of the highest turnouts in recent history. However, the deeper impact of this election was not merely in the numbers but in the long-term normalisation of the FN’s rhetoric within the broader political arena.

“LePen-isation of people’s minds” signified a shift. There was a departure from the party’s original obsessions with the loss of France’s colonies and the communist threat. By the turn of the century, the FN’s identity politics coalesced around the perceived challenges posed by the Muslim presence in France, framed by Senior Le Pen and like-minded leaders as a form of “reverse colonisation”. As the post-war economic boom began to falter, Le Pen (Sr) deftly adjusted his rhetorical strategy. Slogans such as “One million unemployed equals one million too many immigrants” were repeatedly used.

Senior Le Pen’s claims that immigration was responsible for rising delinquency and crime further cemented his appeal among sections of the electorate disillusioned with mainstream parties. The FN embraced a selective notion of European cultural identity, rejecting European institutions while weaponising shared traditions as a bulwark against perceived external influences. Simultaneously, it waged culture wars, framing debates on national identity and religion.

The eventual retreat of Senior Le Pen from the forefront of French politics in 2011 coincided with a recalibration under the leadership of his daughter, Marine Le Pen. Marine inherited the party’s ideological core but sought to “detoxify” its image. This rebranding effort even led to the expulsion of Le Pen (Sr) himself in 2015 over his repeated antisemitic remarks. However, the National Rally remains unmistakably a product of Le Pen (Sr)’s political blueprint, rooted in a decades-long effort to revive the nationalist right.

Marine aimed to expand the FN’s appeal beyond its traditional base. This strategy bore fruit in the 2012 presidential election, where she finished with around 18 per cent of the votes. Under Marine Le Pen’s leadership, the party, now rebranded as the National Rally (Rassemblement National), has shifted its focus from ideological purity to political pragmatism. Paradoxically, this “detoxification” of the FN has been accompanied by a broader “toxification” of French political discourse. The current sentiment in France is a form of “defensive nationalism”, rooted in insecurity and “negative jingoism”—the perception of an existential need to shield oneself from external threats. There exists a vision of national revival that mourns the erosion of French grandeur and seeks to restore it with a populist appeal to pride and identity, which evokes a nostalgia for an idealised past.

The death of Jean-Marie Le Pen comes at a moment when French politics stands at an existential crossroads. Far from serving as a bulwark against the far right, Emmanuel Macron’s presidency has mainstreamed many of its narratives. As Oliver Haynes aptly observed, Macron’s approach has not blunted the far right’s momentum but instead paved the way for its ascension by making its politics more palatable and its themes central to public discourse. Jean-Marie Le Pen himself may now be gone, but the ideology he championed continues to run through the bloodstream of French politics. Senior Le Pen died knowing that the seeds he sowed had not only taken root but flourished.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.