Marine Le Pen

Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen (born 5 August 1968) is a French lawyer and politician who ran for the French presidency in 2012, 2017, and 2022.

Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen was born on 5 August 1968 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the youngest of three daughters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, a Breton politician and former paratrooper, and his first wife, Pierrette Le Pen.

She was baptized on 25 April 1969 at La Madeleine Church in Paris.

Her godfather was Henri Botey, a relative of her father.

Le Pen has two sisters: Yann and Marie Caroline.

In 1976, when Marine was eight, a bomb meant for her father exploded in the stairwell outside the family's apartment as they slept.

The blast ripped a hole in the outside wall of the building, but Marine, her two older sisters and their parents were unharmed.

She was a student at the Lycée Florent Schmitt in Saint-Cloud.

Her mother left the family in 1984 when Marine was 16.

Le Pen wrote in her autobiography that the effect was "the most awful, cruel, crushing of pains of the heart: my mother did not love me."

Le Pen joined the FN in 1986.

Her parents divorced in 1987.

Le Pen studied law at Panthéon-Assas University, graduating with a Master of Laws in 1991 and a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) in criminal law in 1992.

Registered at the Paris bar association, she worked as a lawyer for six years (1992–1998), appearing regularly before the criminal chamber of the 23rd district court of Paris which judges immediate appearances, and often acting as a public defender.

In 1995, she married Franck Chauffroy, a business executive who worked for the National Front.

She has three children with Chauffroy (Jehanne, Louis, and Mathilde).

She was elected as a regional councillor of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (1998–2004; 2010–2015), Île-de-France (2004–2010) and Hauts-de-France (2015–2021), a Member of European Parliament (2004–2017), as well as a municipal councillor of Hénin-Beaumont (2008–2011).

She was a member of the Paris Bar until 1998, when she joined the legal department of the National Front.

Le Pen was raised Roman Catholic.

A member of the National Rally (RN; previously the National Front, FN), she served as its president from 2011 to 2021.

She won the leadership of the FN in 2011, with 67.6% of the vote, defeating Bruno Gollnisch and succeeding her father, who had been president of the party since he founded it in 1972.

Le Pen was featured by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2011 and 2015.

In 2012, she placed third in the presidential election with 17.9% of the vote, behind François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.

She expelled her father from the party in August 2015, after he made fresh controversial statements.

While liberalizing some political positions of the party by revoking its opposition to same-sex partnerships, its opposition to unconditional abortions, and its support for the death penalty, Le Pen still advocates many of the same historical policies of her party, with particular focus on strong anti-immigration, nationalist and protectionist measures.

She is supportive of economic nationalism, favoring an interventionist role of government, and is opposed to globalization and multiculturalism.

Le Pen supports limiting immigration and banning ritual slaughter.

Le Pen has made supportive comments of Vladimir Putin and Russia in the past, advocating closer cooperation before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine; she strongly condemned the war in Ukraine, but stated Russia "could become an ally of France again" if it ends.

In 2016, she was ranked by Politico as the second-most influential MEP in the European Parliament, after President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz.

In January 2024, after months of rising polling numbers, and for the first time ever, Le Pen became the most popular politician in France according to a Verian-Epoka for Le Figaro Magazine.

She has been the member of the National Assembly for the 11th constituency of Pas-de-Calais since 2017.

She currently serves as parliamentary party leader of the National Rally in the Assembly, a position she has held since June 2022.

Le Pen has been widely described as being far-right on the political spectrum.

She is the youngest daughter of former party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and the aunt of former FN MP Marion Maréchal.

She launched a second bid for the presidency at the 2017 election.

She finished second in the first round of the election with 21.3% of the vote and faced Emmanuel Macron of centrist party En Marche! in the second round of voting.

On 7 May 2017, she conceded after receiving approximately 33.9% of the vote in the second round.

In 2020, she announced her third candidacy for the presidency in the 2022 election.

She came second in the first round of the election with 23.2% of the votes, thus qualifying her for the second round against Macron, although she went on to lose in the second round to Macron, receiving 41.5% of the votes.

Le Pen has led a movement of "de-demonisation of the National Front" to soften its image, including limited expulsion of members accused of racism, antisemitism or Pétainism.