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Le Pen feud: family drama in battle for the soul of Front National – and France Le Pen family feud is a battle for the soul of the Front National – and France
(34 minutes later)
No political family has ever lent itself so spectacularly to France’s love of amateur psychoanalysis than the far-right Le Pens – the close-knit yet rather dysfunctional blonde clan which runs the Front National as a family business and until recently all lived together in a grandiose, historic manor house perched on a hill. No political family has ever lent itself so spectacularly to France’s love of amateur psychoanalysis than the far-right Le Pens, the close-knit yet rather dysfunctional blonde clan which runs the Front National as a family business and until recently all lived together in a grandiose, historic manor perched on a hill.
But the Le Pen family feud threatening to engulf the party escalated further on Friday after Marine Le Pen, its president, made an unprecedented televised appeal to her ageing father and party founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, to quit politics and fall on his own sword following his inflammatory comments belittling the Holocaust and hailing France’s Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime. The 86-year-old master provocateur, who remains honorary party president, defiantly vowed to resist and “attack”. The Front National executive meets next week, desperate to hand Marine Le Pen the procedural dagger with which to commit political patricide. But her target is clearly refusing to die. But the Le Pen family feud threatening to engulf the party escalated further on Friday after Marine Le Pen, its president, made an unprecedented televised appeal to her ageing father, Jean-Marie, to quit politics and fall on his own sword following his inflammatory comments belittling the Holocaust and hailing France’s Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime. The 86-year-old master provocateur, who remains honorary party president, defiantly vowed to resist and attack. The Front National executive meets next week, desperate to hand Marine Le Pen the procedural dagger with which to commit political patricide, but her target clearly refuses to die.
Related: Don’t be fooled by ‘moderate’ Marine Le Pen. Front National’s more toxic than ever | Andrea MammoneRelated: Don’t be fooled by ‘moderate’ Marine Le Pen. Front National’s more toxic than ever | Andrea Mammone
All this is more than just psychodrama. It has important bearings on the future of the increasingly powerful far-right in France and the country’s broader political landscape. This is more than just psychodrama. It has important an bearing on the future of the increasingly powerful far-right in France and the country’s broader political landscape.
There is a crucial difference between the gruff ex-paratrooper Jean-Marie and his public relations-savvy daughter who took over the party in 2011. Le Pen senior, who co-founded the party in 1972, nostalgic for colonial Algeria and Vichy, unapologetic in his belief in the “inequality of the races”, and who would later be convicted more than 15 times for hate-speech and contesting crimes against humanity, has always been an outsider. Delighted to be detested, proud to be subject of a protest vote – he never wanted power. But Marine Le Pen very much does want power, and her ambitions go right to the presidency. There is a crucial difference between the gruff former paratrooper Jean-Marie and his public relations-savvy daughter who took over the party in 2011. Le Pen senior, who co-founded the party in 1972, nostalgic for colonial Algeria and Vichy, unapologetic in his belief in the “inequality of the races” and who would later be convicted more than 15 times for hate-speech and contesting crimes against humanity, has always been an outsider. Delighted to be detested, proud to be subject of a protest vote, he never wanted power. Marine Le Pen very much wants power, and her ambitions go right to the presidency.
The Front National’s large election gains under Marine Le Pen’s leadership – topping the polls in the European elections last year, building its largest ever grassroots base with new mayors and councillors, winning MPs and, for the first time, senators – followed her drive to “detoxify” the party and move it away from any racist, jack-booted, antisemitic imagery of the past. She seeks to build an unshakable powerbase across France by making the far-right movement appear more palatable, with her eye on the Elysée. Polls have shown she could knock out a mainstream candidate to make it to the final-round presidential run-off in 2017. The Front National’s large election gains under her leadership, topping the polls in the European elections last year, building its largest ever grassroots base with new mayors and councillors, winning MPs and, for the first time, senators, followed her drive to “detoxify” the party and move it away from any racist, jack-booted, antisemitic imagery of the past. She has sought to build an unshakable powerbase across France by making the far-right movement appear more palatable, with her eye on the Elysée. Polls have shown she could knock out a mainstream candidate to make it to the final-round presidential run-off in 2017.
But the party’s final score in last month’s local elections – in which they won a quarter of the national vote, but failed to win outright control of any single local département – showed there is still a glass ceiling, a break on Marine Le Pen’s quest to be seen as a normal party like any other. To keep its momentum, the Front National must make clear gains in the regional elections at the end of this year. To do that they will need to win over people who prefer the traditional, mainstream right. Papa Le Pen, with his inflammatory views, is increasingly seen as a spanner in the works. The party’s final score in last month’s local elections, however, in which it won a quarter of the national vote but failed to win outright control of a single local département, showed there is still a glass ceiling, a break on Marine Le Pen’s quest to be seen as a normal party like any other. To keep its momentum, the Front National must make clear gains in the regional elections at the end of this year. To do that it will need to win over people who prefer the traditional, mainstream right. Papa Le Pen, with his inflammatory views, is increasingly seen as a spanner in the works.
Related: A feud? Not in the Le Pen family I knewRelated: A feud? Not in the Le Pen family I knew
Some political opponents have claimed the Le Pen feud is just a premeditated pantomime, with father playing bad cop to daughter’s good cop, allowing them to appeal to all bases, accused of peddling the same old tendencies of xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-immigrant feeling, sweetened with euphemisms and wrapped up in the time-old far-right credo that France is for the French.Some political opponents have claimed the Le Pen feud is just a premeditated pantomime, with father playing bad cop to daughter’s good cop, allowing them to appeal to all bases, accused of peddling the same old tendencies of xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-immigrant feeling, sweetened with euphemisms and wrapped up in the time-old far-right credo that France is for the French.
But insiders and experts say the rift is definitive and not mere stage-fighting. Most believe that Marine Le Pen is at a point of no return, and she must make a clean break from the father she entered politics to impress. Insiders and experts, however, say the rift is definitive and not mere stage-fighting. Most believe that Marine Le Pen is at a point of no return, and she must make a clean break from the father she entered politics to impress.
Polls show French voters feel Marine will gain from the spat. It could allow her to move out of the shadow of the second world war, the Holocaust and antisemitism. But many ideas expressed by Jean-Marie Le Pen in the controversial interview that brought the row to a head – that France should join with Russia to save the “white world”, that he understood why some fight democracy, as well as a diatribe of homophobia – remain to be clearly addressed point by point. Polls show French voters feel she will gain from the spat. It could allow her to move out of the shadow of the second world war, the Holocaust and antisemitism, but many ideas expressed by her father in the controversial interview that brought the row to a head – that France should join Russia to save the “white world”, that he understood why some fight democracy, as well as a diatribe of homophobia – remain to be clearly addressed point by point.
There are other issues facing the party. The Front National’s economic policy – namely its vow to leave the euro – is putting off more traditional right-wing voters. It faces party funding inquiries. The party recently denied allegations in an investigation by the website Mediapart that it may have been given a vast loan from a Russian bank in exchange for backing Vladimir Putin over Crimea. The party faces other issues. Its economic policy, namely its vow to leave the euro, is putting off more traditional rightwing voters. It also faces funding inquiries. The party recently denied allegations in an investigation by the website Mediapart that it may have been given a huge loan from a Russian bank in exchange for backing Vladimir Putin over Crimea.
Jean-Marie Le Pen has never been so isolated in the party structures, yet to older party voters, he remains emblematic – a one-man personality cult. Any exit for him will have to appear dignified. That is a conundrum far from being resolved. Jean-Marie Le Pen has never been so isolated in the party structures, yet to older party voters, he remains emblematic, a one-man personality cult. Any exit for him will have to appear dignified. That is a conundrum far from being resolved.