France’s Rise of the Right

By Kate Capparelle

France’s far-right National Rally (RN) has captured widespread attention after winning a decisive 31.4% of the vote in the European parliamentary elections. Led by Marine Le Pen, the RN crushed President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party which obtained only 14.6% of the vote. 

After the results were published, Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called for snap elections at the end of the month. On June 30th and July 7th, France will return to the polls and cast their ballots in what Macron hopes will be a show of resiliency against the surge of the far right.

The RN’s top priorities since 2022 have been to halt immigration, prioritize French nationals for jobs, benefits, and social housing, cut taxes, lower the retirement age, and increase defense spending. With the upcoming elections, however, the RN has begun to soften its policies so that it may form a broader coalition with other Republican parties and win more voters over. 

The RN, previously known as the Front National (FN) until 2018, originated in 1972 as a part of the French nationalist movement under the leadership of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Over the last five decades, the RN has increasingly transitioned from being a fringe right-wing party to one of the major forces in French politics today. 

As president of the FN until 2010, Jean-Marie sparked outrage over his antisemitic, racist, and Islamaphobic remarks. One of the worst statements came in 1987 when Le Pen suggested that “gas chambers were merely a ‘detail’ of World War II.” These instances deeply tarnished the party’s image and generated significant controversy by promoting dangerous Holocaust denial and racist narratives. His inflammatory statements and political extremism contributed to his resounding defeat in the 2002 presidential election against Jacques Chirac, where Chirac won 82% of the vote, and Le Pen just 18%.

In 2010, Marine Le Pen took over the party’s leadership, initiating efforts to rebrand and moderate its image. Unlike her father, Marine aimed to make the RN more mainstream by distancing it from the overtly racist and xenophobic positions that characterized Jean-Marie’s tenure. Under her leadership, the RN succeeded in subsequent elections, notably in 2012 and 2014, gaining more popularity than ever before.

Le Pen’s 2017 presidential campaign marked another turning point, where although she did not win, she received a substantial amount of support, positioning the RN as a serious player in French politics. In 2018, she led the charge for changing the party’s name from Front National, as it was known under her father, to National Rally, in hopes of further mainstreaming the party. The 2022 presidential campaign saw Le Pen defeated by Macron once again, but with a much narrower margin than five years earlier, reinforcing the RN’s growing political force.

Today, the RN maintains a hardline stance on immigration, advocating for strict controls and prioritizing French nationals in numerous aspects of public life. Its rhetoric often displays undertones of Islamophobia by promoting division and exclusion. One example is the RN’s desire to abolish France’s “droit du sol” (jus soli), which grants French nationality at 18 to individuals born in France to foreign parents, provided they have lived in the country for at least five years since the age of 11. Under the RN’s proposal, citizenship would be limited to those born to at least one French parent and contingent upon strict conditions of assimilation, proficiency in the French language, and adherence to French laws and customs. These changes coincide with a recent discriminatory remark made by RN party member Daniel Grenon who “said during a debate that French citizens who also have a North African nationality should not be appointed as ministers.” The RN's policies and statements underscore a concerted effort to ostracize and discriminate against immigrants, particularly those of African origin and Muslim faith.

Recent polls following the dissolution of the National Assembly indicate that voter support for RN remains strong and is ahead of left-wing groups such as the New Popular Front (NFP) coalition and Macron’s Ensemble alliance by 6 and 13.5 percent, respectively. While these are estimates and not facts, the snap elections in the coming weeks will be the true measure of France’s political direction.