Marine Le Pen (French pronunciation: [ma.ʁin lə.pɛn]; born Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen; 5 August 1968) is a lawyer by profession, a French right-wing politician and the president of the Front National (FN), the third-largest political party in France, since 16 January 2011. She is the youngest daughter of the French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, former president of the FN and currently its honorary chairman.
She joined the FN in 1986, its Executive Committee in 2000 and was a vice-president of the FN for eight years (2003–2011). She currently is an ex-officio member of the FN Executive Office, Executive Committee and Central Committee.
She has been a regional councillor since 1998 (Île-de-France: 2004–2010, Nord-Pas-de-Calais: 1998–2004, 2010–present), a Member of the European Parliament since 2004 (Île-de-France: 2004–2009, North-West France: 2009–present) and was a municipal councillor in Hénin-Beaumont, Pas-de-Calais for three years (2008–2011).
In 2010, she was a candidate for the leadership of the FN set up by Jean-Marie Le Pen on 5 October 1972.[1][2][3][4] She successfully succeeded him during the FN congress in Tours, Indre-et-Loire.[5][6][7] On 16 January 2011, she was elected with 67.65% (11,546 votes) as the second president of the Front National.[8]
Marine Le Pen's doctrine is described as significantly more democratic and republican than her nationalist father; While her father wanted to completely abolish immigration, she would like to reduce it; She proposed to establish a referendum on each issue. However, she also strongly opposes illegal immigration, abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia and communitarianism in the country.
On April 21 2011, she was ranked 71 in the most influential person in the 2011 Time 100 .[9]
She was a candidate in the 2012 French presidential election.[10] On 22 April 2012, she polled 17.90% (6,421,426 votes) in the first round and finished in third position behind François Hollande and incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy.[11][12][13]
Marine Le Pen will represented as the FN leader at the legislative election in Pas-de-Calais' 11th constituency, on May 14 2012.[14]
Born in 1968 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, she is the youngest of the three daughters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, a Brittany politician and a former paratrooper with his first wife Pierrette Lalanne. She was baptized April 25, 1969, the Madeleine church, by Father Pohpot. Her godfather was Henri Botey, a relative of Jean-Marie Le Pen.
She has two sisters: Yann and Marie Caroline. The three were teased at school that "papa" was a "fascist". In 1976, Marine survived a bomb attack on the family as they slept in their beds.[15] She was eight when a bomb meant for her father exploded in the stairwell outside the family's apartment. The blast ripped a hole into the outside wall of the building. Marine, her two older sisters and their parents were unharmed.[16]
She was a student at the lycée Florent Schmitt at Saint-Cloud. Her parents publicly divorced in 1987.[17][18]
She studied law in the Pantheon-Assas Paris II University, graduating with a Master of Laws in 1991 and a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) in criminal law in 1992.[8] Registered at the Paris bar association, she worked as a lawyer for six years (1992–1998).[8] Part of her legal work involved representing illegal immigrants. In France, when a defendant cannot afford a lawyer, one is chosen to represent him or her. She often fulfilled this role. In 1992, she received the certificate as a lawyer (CAPA) and became a lawyer practicing in Paris. She then argues regularly before the criminal chamber of the 23rd District Court of Paris which judges immediate appearances. She reported that she was brought in this context, to defend illegal aliens. She is member of the Bar of Paris until 1998, when she joined the legal department of the National Front.
She was married in 1995 to Frank Chauffroy, a business executive who worked for the National Front, she has three children (Joan, Louis and Mathilde) [17]. Divorced in 1999, she remarried Eric Lorio, former national secretary of the National Front and a former adviser to the Regional election in Nord-Pas de Calais, which she also divorced. Since 2009, she is in a relationship with Louis Aliot, at this time the general secretary from 2005 to 2010, then the vice president of the National Front in charge of the Project.[19] She currently reside in Saint-Cloud. She also have an appartment in Henin-Beaumont, and bought in 2010 with Louis Aliot a house in Millas[20]
In 1986, at the age of 18, Marine Le Pen joined the FN. In 2000, she became president of Generations Le Pen, a loose association close to the party aimed at "de-demonizing the Front National".[17] In 1998, she joined the FN's juridical branch, which she led until 2003.
In 2000, she joined the FN Executive Committee (bureau politique). In 2003, she became vice-president of the FN.[17] In 2006, Jean-Marie Le Pen entrusted her with the management of his 2007 presidential campaign. In 2007, she became one of the two executive vice-presidents of the FN and was in charge of training, communication and publicity.[8]
In 1998, she acquired her first political mandate when she was elected regional councillor in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais. From 2002, she began to establish her parliamentary base in the former coal mining area of the Pas-de-Calais.[17]
Her aim is to expand the political influence of the FN and transform it into a "big popular party that addresses itself not only to the electorate on the right but to all the French people".[3] She has frequently stated that she rules out any political alliance with the Union for a Popular Movement.[21][22]
She has at numerous times distanced herself from some of Jean-Marie Le Pen's controversial statements,[23] notably those relating to war-crimes. The media point to her attempts to improve the party's image.[24]
Her candidature was endorsed by an overwhelming majority of senior executives[25] and notably by Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the FN.[26][27]
She spent four months campaigning for the FN leadership, holding meetings with FN members in 51 departments to explain in detail her political views and projects for the party.[28] All the other departments were visited by one of her official supporters.[25]
On 3 September 2010, she launched her internal campaign at Cuers, Var.[29] During a meeting in Paris on 14 November 2010, she claimed: "My project is not to assemble our political family, or rather is not only to assemble our political family. It consists of shaping the Front National as the center of grouping of the whole French people". She also explained why the FN leadership and the candidature for the presidential election must not be dissociated: thus the next FN leader will run in the 2012 presidential election.[30] During her final meeting at Hénin-Beaumont on 19 December 2010, she claimed that the FN presents the real debates of the next presidential campaign.[31][32] Most of her campaign tours throughout France were reported in local newspapers and regional television programmes.
In December 2010 and early January 2011, FN members voted by post to elect their new president and the hundred members of the Central Committee. The party held its congress at Tours for two days (15–16 January 2011).[33] On 16 January 2011, Marine Le Pen was officially elected with 67.65% (11,546 votes) as the new president of the Front National[8][34] and Jean-Marie Le Pen became de facto its honorary chairman. Her challenger Bruno Gollnisch polled 32.35% (5,522 votes).
Marine Le Pen stirred up controversy during the internal campaign. During a speech to the party faithful in Lyon on 10 December 2010, she said that the weekly illegal blocking of public streets and squares throughout France (notably the rue Myrha in the 18th arrondissement of Paris) for Muslim prayers is comparable with an occupation of parts of French territory. The fact that she had mentioned World War II[35] brought claims from the media and politicians that she had drawn a controversial parallel with the German occupation of France (May 1940 – December 1944).
The whole political and media class strongly criticised her statement,[36][37] which was widely commented on by different political analysts.[38][39][40][41] Whereas the CRIF,[42] the French Council of Muslim Faith (CFCM)[43] and the LICRA[44] denounced her statement, other groups like the MRAP[45] and the LDH[46] declared their intention of lodging a formal complaint. The imam of the Great Mosque of Paris and former president of the CFCM, Dalil Boubakeur, claimed that though her parallel was questionable and condemnable, she had asked a valid question.[47]
A member of the FN's Executive Committee, Louis Aliot, denounced "the attempted manipulation of opinion by communitarian groups and those really responsible for the current situation in France".[48] On 13 December 2010, she confirmed her statement during a press conference held in the FN's headquarters in Nanterre.[49][50][51] After Jean-François Kahn's comments on BFM TV on 13 December 2010, she denounced "state manipulation" mounted from the Elysée with the intention of demonizing her in public opinion.[52][53]
Marine Le Pen in the traditionnal
Jeanne d'Arc march, May 1st 2011.
As a president of the Front National, Marine Le Pen currently sits as an ex-officio member among the FN Executive Office (8 members),[54] the Executive Committee (42 members)[55] and the Central Committee (3 ex-officio members, 100 elected members, 20 co-opted members).[56]
During her opening speech in Tours on 16 January 2011, she advocated to "restore the political framework of the national community" and to implement the direct democracy which enables the "civic responsibility and the collective tie" thanks to the participation of public-spirited citizens for the decisions. The predominant political theme was the uncompromising defence of a protective and efficient State, which favours secularism, prosperity and liberties. She also denounced the "Europe of Bruxelles" which "everywhere imposed the destructive principles of ultra-liberalism and Free trade, at the expense of public utilities, employment, social equity and even our economic growth which became within twenty years the weakest of the world.[57]
After the traditional Joan of Arc and Labor Day march in Paris on 1 May 2011, she gave her first speech in front of 3.000 supporters.[58][59] On 11 August 2011, she held an exceptional press conference about the current systemic crisis.[60]
On 10 and 11 September 2011, she made her political comeback with the title "the voice of people, the spirit of France" in the convention center of Acropolis in Nice.[61] During her closing speech on 11 September 2011, she tackled the audience about immigration, insecurity, the economic and social situation, reindustrialization and 'strong state'.[62]
During a demonstration held in front of the Senate on 8 December 2011, she expressed during a speech her "firm and absolute opposition" to the right of foreigners to vote.[63]
She regularly holds thematic press conferences[64] and interventions[65] on varied issues in French, European and international politics.
Her various appearances on television and radio have played an important role in her political rise at national and local levels. Her political personality regularly attracts the attention of the French media[66][67][68][69][70] as well as the European,[18][71][72][73][74] the Middle Eastern[75][76] and the US press.[77][78][79]
On 5 May 2002, after the run-off in the 2002 presidential election, she took part in a televised debate on France 3. Political analysts compared her appearance to a "media baptism" and claim that her political emergence has its roots in this debate.
During the programme Mots croisés (Crossed Words) on France 2 on 5 October 2009,[80] Marine Le Pen quoted sections of Frédéric Mitterrand's autobiographical novel The Bad Life, accusing him of having sex with underage boys and engaging in "sex tourism", demanding his resignation as a Minister of Culture.[81][82][83][84] According to French political commentator Jérôme Fourquet, during the Mitterrand case she broke through and gained a media ascendancy over the party.[85]
Hosted on France 2 by journalist and commentator Arlette Chabot, À vous de juger (You Be The Judge) was one of France's foremost political programmes. For her first appearance as a guest debater on 14 January 2010, Marine Le Pen opposed Éric Besson, then Minister of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Mutually Supportive Development.[86] For her first appearance as a main guest on 9 December 2010, she was successively questioned on economic, societal and immigration matters by Arlette Chabot and political commentator Alain Duhamel, then debated with the socialist mayor of Évry Manuel Valls and finally was matched against Rachida Dati, former Minister of Justice.[87] Her appearance attracted 3,356,000 viewers (14.6% of the televised audience),[88] which represented the highest viewing figures for 2010 and the fourth best since the start of the series in September 2005.[89]
In December 2010, French journalist Guillaume Tabard described her as the "revelation of the year". He further described her as "first an electoral phenomenon" and "a media phenomenon after".[90]
Hosted on France 2 by journalist and anchorman David Pujadas, Des paroles et des actes (Words and Acts) replaced À vous de juger. For her first appearance as a main guest on 23 June 2011, Le Pen opposed Cécile Duflot, national secretary of the Greens.[91][92] Her appearance attracted 3,582,000 viewers which represented 15.1% of the televised audience.[93][94]
Hosted on TF1 by anchorwoman Laurence Ferrari and political commentator François Bachy, Parole directe (Direct Speech) is one of France's foremost political programmes. For her first appearance as a sole guest on 15 September 2011, Le Pen attracted an average of 6 million viewers (23.3% of the televised audience) with a peak of 7.3 million in the second half of the programme.[95][96]
At an international level, she was invited by the Québec web-radio Rockik in December 2008,[97] the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Radio Canada) in May 2010[98] and the Israeli radio 90FM in March 2011.[99] In March 2011, she appeared on the front cover page of The Weekly Standard magazine with the heading "The Future of the European Right?".[100] During a press conference organized on 13 January 2012 by the European American Press Club, she spoke in front of international journalists about various topical and thematic issues.[101]
On 4 April 2011, she appeared for the first time as a candidate in the 2011 Time 100 Poll.[102] On 21 April, she was listed in the 2011 Time 100.[9] Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and vice chairman of the State Duma, wrote a commentary about her political destiny.[103]
She is described as far more democratic and republican than her nationalist father; She wants to considerably reduce immigration although her father wants to abolish it. She also wants to establish a referendum. However she also opposes same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and abortion.
Marine Le Pen claims that the FN's immigration programme is better known among the voters; she thus concentrates on the party's economic and social programme.[104][105]
On 17 October 2011, in front of the French
Dexia headquarters in
La Défense, Marine Le Pen holds a press conference about the systemic banking crisis
Opposed to free trade and autarky, she advocates protectionism as a median way. In her view, if one considers the economy to be a raging river, then free trade is like allowing the torrent to rush along unchecked; autarky equates to the erection of a dam whereas protectionism is to install a sluice gate. "Protectionism is not autarky ! ... Our position is not extreme – as our opponents would have it believed – but one which favours the middle way".[30]
In 2010, she vigorously criticized the pension plan drawn up by Nicolas Sarkozy and his liberal-conservative government.[106][107]
She paid tribute to the economist Maurice Allais, who died on 9 October 2010.[108] The sole French laureate of the Nobel Prize in Economics (1988), Allais had expressed concerns about the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, the single European currency, free trade and Globalization and the 2004 European Constitution.[109][110]
She favours the repeal of the 1973 Pompidou-Giscard Law, which makes it illegal for France to borrow at zero or a low rate of interest from the Banque de France and forces the country to borrow at higher rate on the international financial markets. In her view, the national debt has grown steeply because of this law. She claimed that in 2010 France had already refunded 1.355 trillion euros of accrued interest on loans at a time when the national debt represented around 1.650 trillion euros.[105][111]
She claims to be attached to the French public utilities, the civil servants and the general interest.[112][113] She thus opposes the programmed privatization of the French Post Office (La Poste) : in her view, "the privatization, with the aim of only making profitable, will result in the removal of post offices in the rural areas where the relinquishment of the state is already high". In October 2009, she claimed that three post offices had already disappeared each day in France since 1 January 2009.[114][115] She said that the liberalization of the French public utilities had been ratified by the former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin during the Barcelona summit on 15 and 16 March 2002.[116][117] She had also warned that the UMP government planned a "progressive privatization of the French Social Security system from 2011" – a condition imposed by the financial markets.[118]
During a press conference in June 2011, she advocated to reintroduce the Havana Charter and implement an "International Trade Organization" (in place of World Trade Organization), in order to reorganize the world trade exchanges.[119] Signed by 53 countries and rejected by the US in 1951, this Charter was a trade agreement that would have established an international currency known as the bancor.[120] She claimed that the "Havana Charters's proposals perfectly fit into her economic philosophy"[119] and that "its first article conciliates international trade and employment".[121]
During her speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in November 2011, she proposed "three essential solutions to stop the current world systemic crisis and turn the world towards a greater justice and greater prosperity": reintroduction of a "polymetallic standard" in the International monetary systems as a world standard of reference and exchanges in order to establish a "free monetary system" and struggle against speculation; the ratification of the modernized Havana Charter by the 1948 signatory nations and incoming emerging countries, in order to favour a "reasonable protectionism that encourages cooperation in trade among nations through the end of 'unbridled free trade'"; application of the 1933 Glass–Steagall Act, which legally separated investment banking and commercial banking, to “the banking system of each country”.[120][121] In her view, these solutions will be able to bring a global support for employment thanks to the integration of "full employment" appearing as one of the main targets of the Havana Charter and for industry thanks to the authorization of state aids appearing in the Charter's article 13.[121]
In October 2011, she advocated to implement a drastic regulation of the banking sector separating by law the deposit banks from the merchant banks. She claimed that "the deposit banks should be rescued by a temporary and partial nationalization". In her view, "the balance sheet of the banks should be the object of a transparency operation".[122]
In October 2011, she pledged to "cut immediately seven expenses as harmful as expensive" in order to preserve in the short term France's AAA credit rating and save €30 billion a year.[123]
A president of the Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF), Laurence Parisot regularly levels strong criticism at the FN's economic and social programme.[124] She replied that "the FN is not the friend of the CAC 40 and is fighting the social regression brought about by the MEDEF and inflicted on the French people by the allies of the UMP and the PS".[125] After Parisot's new criticism, she claims that "the philosophy of the FN's economic project comes down to some words: construction of a strong, protective and strategist state, reasoned protections at the boundaries, support to the small and medium enterprises, and get back the monetary sovereignty, only able to assure France's recovery".[126] She also replied that "Laurence Parisot, this is the exact opposite of her democratic and republican project, a project of hope which puts back man and nation in the center of politics".[127] After the publication of Parisot's critical book relating to the FN economic project, she suggested a "direct and public debate" with the president of the MEDEF.[128]
In her view, "the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013 will be unable to protect our farmers from speculators and savage global competition, or to compensate for the excesses of the multinationals of the food processing industry and large-scale distributors. The CAP after 2013 will remain wedged between the ultraliberal and internationalist market logic of the European Commission and a future ‘green’ CAP, in reality serving the neo-capitalists of ecological business".[129]
During her first visit at the Paris International Agricultural Show on 25 February 2011,[130] Marine Le Pen denounced the CAP as an "unbearable bureaucracy" and advocated to substitute it for a "French agricultural policy". She also claimed that "leaving the EU, we could allocate 15 billions of euros to our agriculture".[131][132][133]
She claims that 'internationalist organisations' such as the EU, FAO, United Nations and G-20 are directly responsible for the food crises throughout the world. She advocates France's food independence with regard to multinationals[134] and "a realignment of the farm aid politics to the third countries in order to favour their food sovereignty in particular by the reintroduction of localized food crops".[135]
She advocates the implementation of the "autarky of big spaces" and an "economy in concentric circles". In her view, it is an "ecological heresy to consume products grown at 20,000 km away and recycle waste thousands km further". She claims that we should "produce to the closest", "distribute on the spot", "consume as a priority products of its region" and then "in the nearby region" if not produced on the spot. She seeks to implement "contracts of cooperation" if necessary goods like coffee are not produced in Europe.[136]
Marine Le Pen regularly denounces sharp rises in energy prices[137][138] (gas,[139] gasoline,[140][141][142] electricity[143]) which has "harmful consequences on the purchasing power of the working and middle-class families".[140][141][142] In her view, this rise mainly stems from the European liberalization of the energy sector, jointly implemented by right wing and socialist governments since 1996.[137][139][143]
She advocates an immediate reduction of 20% of the domestic tax on oil products (TIPP), a surchage of fantastic profits of the largest gas and oil companies and a struggle against international speculation on basic products such as food and energy.[137][138][140][141][142] She considers that "a strong state has authority to be the guarantor of public utilities, being the exclusive owner of the strategic companies of public utility and the regulator of tariffs".[139]
After a fatal event occurred on 12 September 2011 in the Centraco nuclear installation located on the Marcoule Nuclear Site, she claimed that "this accident illustrated the dangerousness of this energy and the necessity to consider a progressive and well-thought-out exit from nuclear power". In her view, "the State must secure the 58 French nuclear power plants and invest in researches to process nuclear waste". She advocates to "start the energy diversification of France, in particular with an ambitious programme of research into hydrogen".[144]
She favours accompanied combined transport (ferroutage) and public transport.[136]
Marine Le Pen denounces the current corporate tax as "a crying injustice". She claims that the main groups of CAC 40 only pay 8% of corporate tax whereas the small offices/home offices, the small and medium entreprises, the craftsmen and the shopkeepers fully pay 33.33%. She advocates to implement a flexible corporate tax according to the use of profits: heavier when the profits benefit the shareholders and lighter when the profits turn towards profit sharing, salaries, employment and productive investment, enabling a relocation of activities.[145]
MEP, she holds globalization, intergovernmental organizations, 'euro-mondialism', free trade and ultra-liberalism responsible for the decline of agriculture[146] and the fishing industry,[147] deindustrialization, offshoring and structural unemployment.[148][149][150] Advocating a 'Europe of the nations' like a loose confederation of sovereign nation states, she opposes supranationalism,[151] the euro and the eurozone,[152] the technocracy of Brussels,[153] and the EU's federalism.[154]
She opposes the establishment of a direct European tax, which is favoured by the leaders of the European Parliament and European Commission. She claims that an indirect European tax already exists, since France is a net annual contributor to the EU budget by up to 7 billion euros annually.[155]
She claims that the Treaty of Lisbon is the 'gravedigger of the independence and identity of the European nations' and the 'executioner of public utilities in the name of a cult of profitability and free competition – both mortal enemies of public interest'.[113][115] In her view, the Treaty of Lisbon is an 'exact copy' of the European Constitution which was twice rejected by referendum: first in France by 54.67% of the voters on 29 May 2005[156][157] and then in Netherlands by 61.54% of the voters on 1 June 2005.[158] She thus regretted that the Treaty of Lisbon had been imposed on the French people by parliament in order to avoid another referendum.[159][160] She also criticized its approval by the Socialist Party.[115] She denounces the Treaty's amending implemented by the EU leaders, notably Germany.[161] In her view, the revision is aimed at "solving the euro" and "forever eliminating the budgetary sovereignty of the states to institute a kind of supranational European monetary fund".[162]
Opposed to the accession of Turkey to the European Union, she prefers the option of a "privileged partnership".[163]
She regrets the absence of a public debate in France about the relevance of the single currency and claims that such a debate promoted by economists exists in Germany.[164]
She claims that the implementation of the Euro entailed a rise in prices and its abandonment would lead to an increase in purchasing power.[165] Quoting economic data from Eurostat (annual average growth, unemployment, GDP gap), she notes that "the European countries which did not enter the euro display higher performances than countries in the eurozone for ten years".[165] Interviewed in October 2011 by Adam Boulton on Sky News, she cited the UK's relative stability as an example of how France's economy need not suffer from pulling out of the euro. She noticed that "United Kingdom is not in the eurozone and does not have the least desire to be in it. UK does not tolerate this kind of taking away of its freedom".[73]
In order to recover monetary sovereignty, she advocates that France should gradually leave the euro with a new conversion rate fixed to 1 euro = 1 franc. In her view, France should jointly negotiate a "grouped departure" from the euro and eurozone. This departure should take effect on the same day and include the other European countries (such as Ireland, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium) which are suffering because of the single currency.[166] Since the present government and the whole political class had strongly criticized her economic plan, she submitted a new document detailing how a successful departure of United Kingdom, Spain and Italy from the European Monetary System (EMS) had been achieved from September 1992.[167]
She explains the tenet and the mechanism of a competitive devaluation (J curve),[167] which "will quickly have a positive effect on employment and purchasing power, stimulating industry, international trade and enabling to fight offshorings".[165] Quoting extracts from a book by the French economist Alain Cotta, she claims that a devaluation of the franc will not bring about inflation.[165]
She anticipates a "total economic federalization of the eurozone". In her view, "this option which is favoured by the European technostructure, presents all the features of a totalitarian utopia". She claims that a "monstrous superstructure, already named 'European ministry of Finance', would decide in the opaqueness our policies of education, health and security". In her view, "the federal headlong rush also supposes a massive financial transfer of our countries towards Southern and Eastern Europe, at the detriment of the most vulnerable French people".[164]
About successive bailout plans, she laments that "the contributing countries, France in particular, throw in the hole of the European debt billions which dig their deficits and come them closer to the eye of the cyclone".[164] In her view, "the hundred of billions paid do not product any result, will not settle any problem, will not rescue a eurozone already in bankruptcy and push France into the chasm of excessive debt, whereas the French debt has already exploded under the mandate of Nicolas Sarkozy". Fearing that "France falls into the excessive debt", she refuses "any new assistance plan in order to bail out one after the other the countries suffering because of the single currency".[168]
She asserts that despite the expansion of the abilities of the European Financial Stability Facility, reassuring announcements and new austerity plans, Greece is sinking, social devastation is intensifying and the anger of the people bursts out.[164] On July 2011, she claimed that "after the seventeen billions of the first Greek bailout plan, the fifteen billions of the new assistance plan to Greece will make heavy our own already huge debt".[169][170] During her press conference organized on 6 September 2011 at the Pont de la Concorde in front of the National Assembly, she vigorously denounced the favourable voting by Socialist and UMP-NC MPs of second Greek bailout plan.[171][172][173]
She pledged to pull France out of NATO, saying that the National Front has from day one been opposed to NATO membership.[174] Interviewed in October 2011 by Kommersant, she claimed that "she believed in a multipolar world".[74][175]
In her view, France has also to revise its geostrategic relations with the USA.[174] She regularly denounces France's bandwagoning towards the USA. She advocates that France takes its independence towards US and regains the geopolitical independence beloved by Charles de Gaulle.[176]
In May 2011, she claimed that the "old institutions" such as World Trade Organization, World Bank and International Monetary Fund were "expired".
In 2011, she advocated the "replacement of WTO by an 'International Trade Organization', founded on the sane principles of protection, interest of people and support to small and medium entreprises, the 'humbles' faced with the 'powerful' and cartels".[119][121]
In her view, IMF which "has become an infernal machine at the service of the ultraliberal ideology, is in its current form an extremely harmful institution". She claims that "the structural adjustment plans that IMF imposes on countries where it operates, systematically result in privatization of public utilities, dismantling of the state, drop in salaries and pensions, and removal of protections at boundaries". In her view, "peoples are always the first victims of IMF like in Argentina in 2001 and today in Greece". She claims that "the in-depth results of IMF are disastrous : rise in debts and sharp increase in rhythm of financial crises for two decades". She consequently advocates the abolition of IMF.[177] On 28 July 2011, she reacted after the publication of the IMF yearly report on France. In a letter addressed to the managing director of IMF Christine Lagarde, she explained in detail the "four pillars to get out France of the debt and straighten out our public accounts".[178]
Marine Le Pen advocates to "vote for the abolition of the law enabling the regularization of the illegal immigrants". In her view, "this measure corresponds with the interest of France, the respect of its authority and the most elementary justice".[62]
In July 2011, she wrote an open letter to policemen, gendarmes and customs officers concerning the policy of the fight against illegal immigration.[179] She criticized the "passivity and inactivity of the UMP government faced with the collapse of expulsions of illegal immigrants" as well as its "blind submissiveness to very questionable European injunctions". Denouncing a "sharp fall in deportations since the beginning of 2011 after a decrease of near 5% in 2010", she claimed that "most of the detention centres are almost empty in 2011". Advocating the "return of any foreigner illegally entered to France towards his/her country of origin", she claims that she "refuses to give up the fight against illegal immigration".[179]
She favours a "radical change of politics in order to drastically reduce upstream the influx of illegal immigrants towards France". In her view, this policy requires to "cut the 'suction pumps' of illegal immigration while France is in this field one of the most incentive countries in the world".[179] Implemented in 2000 by Lionel Jospin's government, the aide médicale d'Ėtat (AME) grants free medical care to illegal immigrants. Denouncing a "state scandal" and an "increasing financial black hole for the French social security system", she "pledges to repeal the AME as soon as she will come to power".[118][179] She claims that, in the wake of selected immigration and then endured immigration, Nicolas Sarkozy is imposing health-care immigration on the French people.[118]
In February 2011, she claimed that in the wake of the Arab Spring, Europe and particularly France would be confronted with a surge in illegal immigration. She denounced "the EU's tragic helplessness to respond to this new migratory challenge" and "the EU's disability to face these emergency situations and to control effectively the migratory flows".[180]
Accompanied by the vice-president of the FN Louis Aliot and Mario Borghezio MEP (Lega Nord), she travelled to Lampedusa on 14 March 2011.[181] She met the island's mayor Bernardino De Rubeis (Movement for Autonomies) and visited a housing center for illegal immigrants. She said that "Europe can't welcome everyone... We would be pleased to take them all in our boat, but it's not big enough. We'll all go to the bottom. We would be adding one misery to another" and "I also want to offer my support to the inhabitants of Lampedusa who have had the feeling of being completely abandoned". Around 9,000 migrants had already reached Lampedusa by boat since mid-January 2011 when protests in Tunisia unleashed a revolution across the Arab world.[182][183][184][185] During an international press conference held in Rome on 15 March 2011, she explained the situation of illegal immigration in Lampedusa, emphasized "the helplessness of EU" and how "each nation is more efficient to deal with the issue", and proposed solutions to settle this issue.[186]
In order to curb the illegal immigration influx from Tunisia and Libya, she has enjoined Nicolas Sarkozy to announce France's immediate and definitive withdrawal from Schengen Area and to reinstate urgently customs controls in all the borders of the country. She claimed that the UMP government's deceptive announcements about Schengen issue aimed at concealing its political inactivity and attempting to cheat public opinion.[187][188] In her view, the announcement of a technical adjustment of Schengen Agreement proposed by Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi during the 26 April 2011 French-Italian summit "will not settle strictly anything". Reminding that United Kingdom and Ireland have refused the Agreement, she claims that only the withdrawal from Schengen Area will enable France to re-establish necessary customs controls and stop immigration.[189] She claims that "traffics and networks of smugglers thrive when a country does not control its borders".[179]
Marine Le Pen seeks to establish a moratorium on legal immigration.[190][191] During a press conference on 21 February 2011, she unveiled "the 2010 real figures of immigration" based on data transmitted by highrankers of the Minister of the Interior, detailed the welfare benefits to which the legal and illegal immigrants are entitled, and proposed concrete solutions based on working models in the UK and the Netherlands.[192] In July 2011, she claims that "with 203,000 residence permits allocated in 2010 versus 114,000 in 2000 under Lionel Jospin, the UMP power promotes a laxer than ever policy of legal immigration".[179]
On 28 November 2010, 52.9% of the Swiss voters and 15 5/2 cantons approved the popular iniative "for the deportation of criminal foreigners" while the governmental counterproposal was rejected by 54.2% of voters and all the 20 6/2 cantons. She praised "the great victory of the Swiss people against the ruling elite".[193] Afterwards, she took part in debates on Radio Suisse Romande (RSR) with the SVP national councillor Oskar Freysinger[194] and then on Radio Cité Genève.[195]
Interviewed by The Daily Telegraph, she praised David Cameron's pledge to cut net annual immigration to UK from around 200,000 to "tens of thousands".[196] In February 2011, David Cameron expressed a rejection of multiculturalism during a speech at Munich security conference.[197] Afterwards, she congratulated him, for what she claimed was an endorsement of the FN's views on the failure of multiculturalism and immigration.[198]
In her view, citizenship is indivisible from nationality and rests on the equality of all people before the law; the latter should preclude preferential treatment based on the membership of a social, ethnic or religious category.[199] As a result, she favours the repeal of affirmative action[199][200] and the restoration of the "republican meritocracy".[200][201]
She claims that filiation should be the normal route to French nationality, with naturalization the exception:[199] "nationality is inherited or merited".[190] In her view, naturalization can only be obtained after a check on the ability of assimilation to republican principles.[199] In order to settle the immigration issue, she advocates a reform of the nationality regulations so as to remove dual citizenship and the automatic acquisition of French nationality.[191] On 30 May 2011, she wrote a letter to the Members of Parliament about dual citizenship: she claimed that "in the dual citizenship lie one of the main ferments of breach of the republican cohesion that France needs more than ever and a potent brake on the assimilation of French people from immigration".[202][203]
She favours an enforcement of the law regarding loss of nationality.[190] In her view, a foreigner who does not respect the law in France should be deprived of French nationality; equally any foreigner committing serious crimes and offences in France should be returned to his or her country of origin.[190]
She favours a 'French first' policy with regard to employment, welfare and accommodation.[190][191]
Advocating that the FN remains a non-denominational party, Marine Le Pen regularly states her attachment to secularism (laïcité) in French society.[204] She vigorously defends the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, stipulating that the French republic does not recognise, grant a salary or subsidise any form of religious worship.[199][204][205]
She favours a ban on any communitarian or religious demands in schools, and seeks an amendment to the Constitution stating that the French republic does not recognize any community (denominations and ethnic groups).[190][205] Opposed to the financing of mosques from public funds, she further seeks to deny their financing from foreign assets.[190][204][205] In her view, the construction, maintenance and financing of places of worship should be a matter for groups of worshippers operating within a regulated framework.[190][199] She advocates to implement "the separation of the mosque and the state" and opposes the training of Imams by the French republic.[205]
On 29 November 2009, 57.5% of Swiss voters and 19 ½ cantons approved the popular initiative "for a ban on the construction of new minarets" (without retroactive effect on the four minarets already built in Switzerland). She congratulated the Swiss people on the overwhelming approval of the ban and denounced the ruling elite for its contempt of direct democracy.[206][207][208][209]
In February 2010, the fast food chain Quick announced that eight of its franchises would offer exclusively halal meals. This decision immediately triggered a controversy among the French political class from the Socialist Party, the UMP (Lionnel Luca MP) and the FN.[210] The controversy was particularly sharp in Roubaix (Nord) : the socialist mayor René Vandierendonck even threatened a lawsuit and she wrote two official statements about the matter.[210][211] Denouncing an "accelerated policy of Islamisation" and a "breach of the constitutional principle of secularism", she claimed that Quick had been owned by the French state since October 2006 and that the UMP state is the owner of Quick through the Caisse des dépôts et consignations (Qualium Investissement subsidiary), which holds 99.63% of its capital.[210][211]
Interviewed by Radio 1 in June 2011, she said that unlike the leader of the PVV Geert Wilders, she is “not waging war against Islam” and "is fighting the Islamisation of French society". Emphasizing her divergence with the Dutch MP, she claimed : “That’s the difference between Geert Wilders and me. He reads the Qur’an literally: you can’t interpret the Qur’an – or indeed the Bible – literally. I resist fundamentalists who want to impose their will and law on France. Sharia Law is not compatible with our principles, our values or democracy.”[212]
Marine Le Pen is opposed to the repeal of the 1975 Veil Law (Loi Veil) which framed abortion in a restrictive legislative provision. She claims that an unfavorable socio-economical background is a determining factor for the majority of women who have undergone an abortion. Consequently, she advocates a strongly pro-family policy more conducive to the nurturing and raising of children. Favourable to a policy aimed at increasing the birth rate, she explains her views on abortion in her autobiography À contre flots.[213]
She is strictly opposed to any softening of the law against euthanasia.[214]
She supports a referendum on whether to reinstate the capital punishment in France, which was abolished in 1981.[215] The electorate would have the choice between restoring the death penalty and introduce a 'real' life imprisonment (without parole). Currently, French lifers are eligible for parole after serving 18 to 22 years, except in small number of cases.[216]
On the 70th anniversary of the Appeal of 18 June, Marine Le Pen held a press conference at the FN's headquarters. Drawing a parallel with the fall of France in June 1940, she denounced the weakening of the nation state, German domination within the EU and subservience to Atlanticism. Her goal was to "become the personification of national ambition and to return to France a spirit of greatness and an awareness of its place in history".[217]
She remains committed to France's territorial sovereignty, including the Overseas departments and territories. During a debate on Radio Cité Genève with Éric Bertinat, an SVP member of the Grand Council of Geneva, she vigorously opposed his proposal that the French departments of Ain and Haute-Savoie be incorporated into Switzerland.[218]
During her opening speech, she reminded that France is present in three oceans and possesses the second-largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world, covering 11 million km2[57][219] During her opening speech, she also emphasized the importance of the French language and Francophonie. She claimed that "our national language is spreading through the five continents, privilege that it shares only with English" and that "the Francophonie has to vibrate in the lands of Asia, Americas, Europe and Africa again".[57]
In April 2011, she wrote a letter to all the prefects of France.[220] She denounced "the weakening of the state", "the discouragement of its personnels" and "the ineffectiveness of its governance". She claimed that the history of France shows us that as soon as there is a gap of the state, the local baronies reconstruct. She proposed a politic of re-establishment of the state which will lean on the high-ranking and devoted civil servants.[221]
In a referendum on becoming an overseas department held on 29 March 2009, 95.22% of the Mahoran voters approved the change of status. An overseas collectivity from 2003, Mayotte became France's 101 department on 31 March 2011. A third of the population of Mayotte are illegal migrants, mostly from the nearby islands of the archipelago which make up the independent Comoran state.[222] In her view, the accession of Mayotte to an overseas department will create a new in-draught for illegal immigration, which constitutes a threat for the stability of the island. She claims that the departmental status of the island requires the relinquishment of the jus soli wished in 2005 by François Baroin, then Minister of Overseas and the implementation of the 'French first' policy in the granting of welfare aids.[223]
Reasserting her indefectible attachment to the French Caledonia, she stated that "New Caledonia is in France and must stay there". In her view, "the creation of a citizenship and an acknowledgment of a 'Kanak identity' organize a true dismemberment of the sovereignty and a breach of the unity of the French republic". In June 2010, she claimed that "the official acknowledgment of the flag of the separatists of FNLKS as emblem of New Caledonia would constitute an affront to France and would show the true will of the UMP government to get rid of this French territory".[224] She stated that "the only flag of New Caledonia, a French territory, is the French flag in accordance with the article 2 of the French constitution". In February 2011, she again claimed that "the controversial solution of the two flags, contrary to the Nouméa Accord, which was supported by the Prime Minister François Fillon, is an additional proof of the will of the government and Nicolas Sarkozy to want to get rid of a part of France".[225]
She advocates forging a privileged partnership with Russia. She claims that a French-Russian partnership is necessitated by "obvious civilization and geostrategic factors" as well as France's "energy security interests". In her view, "France's interests are in Europe, but in Great Europe, especially including its partnership with Russia".[174] Interviewed by Kommersant, she claimed that "the process of demonization of Russia is taking place at the level of the EU leadership and at the wishes of the US, which is trying to create a unipolar world." Interviewed about democracy in Russia and Vladimir Putin, she replied: "We also do not have an ideal democracy in France and, therefore, do not have the right to give Russia lessons in democracy. But I openly admit that, to some extent, I admire Vladimir Putin. He makes mistakes, but who doesn’t? The situation in Russia is complicated, and one cannot expect all the problems stemming from the collapse of the Soviet Union to be quickly resolved – they require time. I think that Vladimir Putin has principles and a vision of the future that is necessary to ensure Russia’s prosperity, which it deserves.[74][175]
She claims that the Front National is a "patriotic" party with more in common with the