National Rally

National Rally
Rassemblement national
AbbreviationRN
PresidentJordan Bardella
Vice Presidents
  • Louis Aliot
  • David Rachline
  • Hélène Laporte
  • Laure Lavalette
Parliamentary party leaderMarine Le Pen (National Assembly)
Founders
Founded5 October 1972 (1972-10-05) (FN); 2018 (2018) (RN)
Preceded byOrdre Nouveau
Headquarters114 bis rue Michel-Ange
75016 Paris
Youth wingRassemblement national de la jeunesse
Security wingDepartment for Protection and Security
Membership (2025)160,000 (claimed)[4][5]
Ideology
  • French nationalism[6]
  • National conservatism
  • Right-wing populism[7]
Political positionFar-right[A][8]
National affiliationRassemblement bleu Marine (2012–2017)
European affiliationPatriots.eu
European Parliament groupPatriots for Europe
(since 2024)[nb 1]
Colours  Navy blue[nb 2]
National Assembly
120 / 577
Senate
3 / 348
European Parliament
29 / 81
Presidencies of Regional Councils
0 / 17
Regional Councillors
242 / 1,758
Presidencies of Departmental Councils
0 / 101
Departmental Councillors
26 / 4,108
Website
rassemblementnational.fr
  • Politics of France
  • Political parties
  • Elections
^ A: The RN is considered part of the radical right, a subset of the far-right which does not oppose democracy.[13]

The National Rally (French: Rassemblement national, [ʁasɑ̃bləmɑ̃ nɑsjɔnal], RN), known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 (French: Front national, [fʁɔ̃ nɑsjɔnal], FN), is a French far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and nationalist. It is the single largest parliamentary opposition party in the National Assembly since 2022. It opposes immigration, advocating significant cuts to legal immigration, protection of French identity,[14] and stricter control of illegal immigration. The party advocates a "more balanced" and "independent" French foreign policy, opposing French military intervention in Africa while supporting France leaving NATO's integrated command. It also supports reform of the European Union (EU), economic interventionism, protectionism, and zero tolerance for breaches of law and order.[15]

The party was founded in 1972 by the Ordre Nouveau to be the legitimate political vehicle for the far-right movement.[16] Jean-Marie Le Pen was its founder and leader until his resignation in 2011. While its influence was marginal until 1984, the party's role as a nationalist electoral force has grown considerably.[17] It has put forward a candidate at every presidential election but one since 1974. In the 2002 presidential election, Jean-Marie Le Pen advanced to the second round but finished a distant second in the runoff to Jacques Chirac.[18] His daughter Marine Le Pen was elected to succeed him as party leader in 2012. Jordan Bardella assumed the leadership in 2022.[19]

The party has seen an increase in its popularity and acceptance in French society in recent years. It has been accused of promoting xenophobia and antisemitism.[20] While her father was nicknamed the "Devil of the Republic" by mainstream media and sparked outrage for hate speech, including Holocaust denial and Islamophobia, Marine Le Pen pursued a policy of "de-demonisation", trying to frame the party as being neither right nor left.[21] She endeavoured to extract it from its far-right roots, as well as censuring controversial members like her father, who was suspended and then expelled from the party in 2015.[22] Following her election as the leader of the party in 2011, the popularity of the FN grew.[23] By 2015, the FN had established itself as a major political party in France.[24][25] Sources traditionally label the party as far-right.[8] However, some media outlets have started to refer to the party as "right-wing populist" or "nationalist right" instead, arguing that it has substantially moderated from its years under Jean-Marie Le Pen.[26]

At the FN congress of 2018, Marine Le Pen proposed renaming the party Rassemblement National (National Rally),[27] and this was confirmed by a ballot of party members.[28] Formerly strongly Eurosceptic, the National Rally changed policies in 2019, deciding to campaign for a reform of the EU rather than leaving it and to keep the euro as the main currency of France (together with the CFP franc for some collectivities).[29] In 2021, Le Pen announced that she wanted to remain in the Schengen Area, but to reserve free movement to nationals of a European Economic Area country, excluding residents of and visitors from another Schengen country.[30][31]

Le Pen reached the second round of the 2017 presidential election, receiving 33.9% of the votes in the run-off and losing to Emmanuel Macron. Again in the 2022 election, she lost to Macron in the run-off, receiving 41.45% of the votes. In the 2022 parliamentary elections, the National Rally achieved a significant increase in the number of its MPs in the National Assembly, from 7 to 89 seats. In June 2024, the party won the European Parliament elections in a landslide with 31.4% of the votes. This caused Macron to announce a snap election. Later that month, an RN-led right-wing coalition topped the first round of the snap French legislative election with a record 33.2% of the votes. On 7 July, the RN also won the popular vote (37.06%) in the second round of the snap election, but only won the third highest number of seats.[32]

On 31 March 2025, 25 National Rally members (including Le Pen, former MEPs, and their assistants) were convicted of embezzlement for using European Parliament funds to fund National Rally staff. The sentences for several MEPs, including Le Pen, included bans on running for political office.[33][34][35]

  1. ^ Gatehouse, Gabriel (5 December 2015). "Vive la difference – has France's Front National changed?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 17 July 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  2. ^ Corbet, Sylvie (3 July 2024). "Renowned Nazi hunter in France advises Jews to choose far right over far left in elections". AP News. The Associated Press. Archived from the original on 3 July 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  3. ^ Kirby, Paul (30 June 2024). "The rise and rise of France's far right". BBC News. BBC. Archived from the original on 8 July 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  4. ^ "Il faut trouver une place au RN: à l'Assemblée, les tractions du socle commun pour mieux répartir les postes clés". 17 September 2025. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  5. ^ "Le RN revendique 20.000 adhésions supplémentaires depuis la condamnation de Marine le Pen". 4 April 2025.
  6. ^
  7. ^
  8. ^ a b Abridged list of reliable sources that refer to the National Rally as far-right:
  9. ^ Garnier, Christophe-Cécil (7 December 2015). "Quelle doit être la couleur du Front national sur les cartes électorales?" (in French). Slate. Archived from the original on 14 June 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  10. ^ Ivaldi, Gilles (18 May 2016). "A new course for the French radical right? The Front National and "de-demonisation"". In Akkerman, Tjitske; de Lange, Sarah L.; Rooduijn, Matthijs (eds.). Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe: Into the Mainstream?. Routledge. p. 225. ISBN 978-1-317-41978-5. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  11. ^ Forchtner, Bernhard (September 2019). "Climate change and the far right". Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change. 10 (5) e604. Bibcode:2019WIRCC..10E.604F. doi:10.1002/wcc.604. S2CID 202196807.
  12. ^ Forchtner, Bernhard (2020). The Far Right and the Environment: Politics, Discourse and Communication. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-10402-9. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  13. ^ [10][11][12]
  14. ^ Davies 2012, pp. 46–55.
  15. ^ "22 MESURES POUR 2022 (22 measures for 2022)". Rassemblement National. 2022. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  16. ^ Lebourg, Nicolas; Preda, Jonathan (15 May 2013). "Ordre Nouveau, fin des illusions droitières et matrice activiste du premier Front national" [New Order, end of illusions and the activist matrix of the first National Front]. Studia Historica. Historia Contemporánea. 30: 205–230. Sa "mémoire" se structure autour de deux motifs: la violence de masse, et l'intégration de l'extrême droite au jeu politique avec la création par Ordre Nouveau du Front National en 1972.
  17. ^ Shields 2007, p. 229.
  18. ^ DeClair 1999, pp. 46, 56 and 71.
  19. ^ "France's far right replaces Le Pen with Jordan Bardella". dw.com. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  20. ^ "National Rally". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  21. ^ Softening image:
    Devil of the Republic:
    Holocaust denial:
    Islamophobia:
  22. ^ Jean-Marie suspension and expulsion:
  23. ^ "Local elections confirm a quarter of French voters support Front National". openeurope.org.uk. 23 March 2015. Archived from the original on 19 November 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  24. ^ John Lichfield (1 March 2015). "Rise of the French far right: Front National party could make sweeping gains at this month's local elections". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  25. ^ "France – Poll gives France's far-right National Front party boost ahead of regional vote". France24.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  26. ^ Vinocur, Nicholas (12 February 2024). "How Marine Le Pen turned respectable (and why you shouldn't be fooled)". POLITICO. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference Le Monde, March 2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ Cite error: The named reference Le Monde, June 2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  29. ^ Barbière, Cécile (16 April 2019). "Le Pen's Rassemblement National revises stance towards EU and the euro". euractiv.com. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  30. ^ "Après l'euro et le Frexit, nouveau revirement européen de Marine Le Pen". Le HuffPost (in French). 29 January 2021. Archived from the original on 21 February 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  31. ^ "Marine Le Pen n'envisage plus de suspendre les accords de Schengen". 20minutes.fr (in French). 12 February 2020. Archived from the original on 19 February 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  32. ^ Johnston, Ian; Abboud, Leila; Klasa, Adrienne; Chassany, Anne-Sylvaine; White, Sarah; McDougall, Mary (8 July 2024). "Left-wing surge thwarts far right in French election". Financial Times. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  33. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gdn31325 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  34. ^ Samuel, Henry (31 March 2025). "Marine Le Pen banned from politics". The Telegraph.
  35. ^ "French Court bans far-right leader Marine Le Pen from running for office". France 24. 31 March 2025.


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