The Radical Right in France

Nonna Mayer (1)

1 CEE - Centre d'études européennes et de politique comparée (Sciences Po, CNRS)

After providing a quick summary of the long history of the French radical right, from the reaction to the revolution of 1789 to the creation of the Front National in 1972, this chapter focuses on the changes brought about by Marine Le Pen since she took over her father’s party in 2011. Her “de-demonization” strategy has indeed improved the image of the movement and attracted new voters. But the nativist anti-immigrant message is the same as Jean-Marie Le Pen’s. And the Front National still suffers from political isolation; while it has sometimes won the first round of elections, it has yet to achieve a majority in the second round. After its semi-defeat in the 2017 elections, the very opportunity of the de-demonization strategy is being questioned inside the party.

Keywords: Marine Le Pen; French radical right; Front National; anti-immigrants; right-wing movements; France

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Sociology; Humanities and Social Sciences; Political science

Nonna Mayer. The Radical Right in France. Jens Rydgren. The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right, Oxford University Press, pp.433 - 451, 2018, 9780190274559. ⟨hal-02286230⟩