Jean-Marie Le Pen

Jean-Marie Le Pen (born June 20, 1928) is a controversial French politician.

Political career

A decorated veteran of the French paratroops in Indochina (1953), Suez (1956), and Algeria (1957), Le Pen started his political career in Toulouse when he became the head of the students union. In 1953 he called Vincent Auriol, President of the Republic at the time, and by using his former status he got approval for a volunteer rescue project to carry out disaster relief after a flood in the Netherlands. Within two days there were forty volunteers from his university, a group that would go on to help victims of an earthquake in Italy. In Paris, 1956, he became the youngest member of the French National Assembly, with the party of Pierre Poujade.

Related Topics:
French paratroops - Indochina - 1953 - Suez - 1956 - Algeria - 1957 - Toulouse - Vincent Auriol - Netherlands - Paris - French National Assembly - Pierre Poujade

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In 1957, he became the General Secretary of the National Front of Combatants (FNC). The next year, he was re-elected as deputy to the National Assembly and adhered to the parliamentary party National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP), led by Antoine Pinay. During this period, Le Pen actively followed issues of the war and defense budget. In 1965 Le Pen became the director of the presidential campaign of Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour.

Related Topics:
1957 - National Front of Combatants - National Centre of Independents and Peasants - Antoine Pinay - 1965 - Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour

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In 1972, he founded the nationalist, far-right party Front National. The electoral results of the Front National have been on the rise since the municipal elections of 1983.

Related Topics:
1972 - Nationalist - Far-right - Front National - 1983

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In 1984 and 1999 Le Pen won a seat in the European Parliament. He was deprived of his seat by the European Court of Justice on April 10, 2003 (see below). In 1992 and 1998 he was elected to the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. His political career has been most successful in the south of France.

Related Topics:
1984 - 1999 - European Parliament - European Court of Justice - April 10 - 2003 - 1992 - 1998 - Regional - Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

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Le Pen ran in the French presidential elections in 1974, 1988, 1995 and 2002. In the presidential elections of 2002, Le Pen obtained 16.86% of the votes in the first round of voting. This was enough to qualify him for the second round, as a result of the poor showing by the Socialist candidate and incumbent prime-minister Lionel Jospin and the scattering of votes among fifteen other candidates. This was a major political event, both nationally and internationally, as it was the first time an far right-wing candidate had qualified for the second round of the French presidential elections. There was a widespread stirring of national public opinion, and more than one million people in France took part in street rallies, in an expression of fierce opposition to Le Pen's ideas. Le Pen was then soundly defeated in the second round when incumbent president Jacques Chirac obtained 82% of the votes.

Related Topics:
1974 - 1988 - 1995 - 2002 - Presidential elections of 2002 - Socialist - Lionel Jospin - Jacques Chirac

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In the 2004 regional elections, Jean-Marie Le Pen intended to run for office in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur région but was prevented from doing so because he did not meet the conditions for being a voter in that region: he neither lived there, nor was registered as a taxpayer there. Le Pen complained of a government plot to prevent him from running. Some argue that this event was merely a scheme of Le Pen's to avoid defeat in the election.

Related Topics:
2004 regional elections - Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur - Région

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In recent years, Le Pen has tried to soften his image, with mixed success. He has manoeuvred his daughter Marine into a prominent position, a move that angered many inside the National Front, concerned with the grip of the Le Pen family on the party.

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