The National Rally,known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018,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. Its candidate was defeated in the second round in the 2002,2017 and 2022 presidential elections. It opposes immigration,advocating significant cuts to legal immigration,protection of French identity,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) and its related organisations as well as economic interventionism,protectionism,and zero tolerance for breaches of law and order.
The far-right tradition in France finds its origins in the Third Republic with Boulangism and the Dreyfus affair. In the 1880s,General Georges Boulanger,called "General Revenge",championed demands for military revenge against Imperial Germany as retribution for the defeat and fall of the Second French Empire during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). This stance,known as revanchism,began to exert a strong influence on French nationalism. Soon thereafter,the Dreyfus affair provided one of the political division lines of France. French nationalism,which had been largely associated with left-wing and Republican ideologies before the Dreyfus affair,turned after that into a main trait of the right-wing and,moreover,of the far right. A new right emerged,and nationalism was reappropriated by the far-right who turned it into a form of ethnic nationalism,blended with anti-Semitism,xenophobia,anti-Protestantism and anti-Masonry. The Action française (AF),first founded as a journal and later a political organization,was the matrix of a new type of counter-revolutionary right-wing,which continues to exist today. During the interwar period,the Action française and its youth militia,the Camelots du Roi,were very active. Far right leagues organized riots.
Jean-Paul Garraud is a French politician serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019. A cofounder of The Popular Right,he is former member of the National Assembly,where he represented the 10th constituency of Gironde from 2002 to 2012.
Éric Ciotti is a French politician who led The Republicans (LR) from 2022 to 2024. He has represented the 1st constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes department in the National Assembly since the 2007 legislative election. A member of The Republicans' right-wing,he was seeking to distance the party from Emmanuel Macron's presidency.
Jérôme Rivière is a French politician,lawyer and entrepreneur who has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2024. A member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) until 2007,he was a member of the National Rally (RN),previously known as the National Front (FN),from 2017 until 2022,when he announced his support for Éric Zemmour in the 2022 presidential election and was appointed vice chairman of Zemmour's newly-founded Reconquête party.
Marion Jeanne Caroline Maréchal,known as Marion Maréchal-Le Pen from 2010 to 2018,is a French politician who has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2024. She is part of the Le Pen family,as the granddaughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and niece of its later leader Marine Le Pen.
Gilbert Georges Jean Camille RenéCollard is a French writer,barrister and politician serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019. A member of the National Rally (RN) until 2022,he was a member of the National Assembly for the 2nd constituency of Gard from 2012 until 2019. Collard also served as Secretary-General of the Rassemblement bleu Marine (RBM) since 2012,a right-wing political association and think-tank supporting Marine Le Pen. In January 2022,he left the RN for Éric Zemmour's Reconquête.
Patriots.eu,formerly known as the Identity and Democracy Party (ID) and the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom (MENF),is a nationalist,right-wing populist and Eurosceptic European political party founded in 2014. Its Members of the European Parliament sat in the Europe of Nations and Freedom group from 2015 to 2019,then in the Identity and Democracy group between 2019 and 2024;following the 2024 European Parliament election,most of its MEPs sit within the Patriots for Europe group.
François-Xavier Bellamy is a French essayist,high-school teacher and politician. He is a former Deputy Mayor of Versailles (2008–2019) and is now a Member of the European Parliament (2019–present),having led The Republicans (LR) list in the 2019 and 2024 election.
Ludovic Pajot is a French politician who served as the member of the National Assembly for the 10th constituency of Pas-de-Calais from 2017 to 2021. A member of the National Rally,he has been Mayor of Bruay-la-Buissière since 2020. At age 24 in 2017,Pajot was the youngest member of the 15th National Assembly. He previously was a municipal councillor in Béthune,first elected in 2014.
Typhanie Degois is a French politician who represented Savoie's 1st constituency of in the National Assembly from 2017 until 2022.
Jordan Bardella is a French politician who has been the president of the National Rally (RN) since 2022,after serving as acting president from September 2021 to November 2022 and as vice-president from 2019 to 2022. Bardella has also served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019,when he was the lead candidate for the RN in the European Parliament election,and has been a regional councillor of Île-de-France since 2015.
HervéJuvin is a French essayist and politician who was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) on the National Rally (RN) list in 2019. He sat with Identity and Democracy (ID) until 2022,when he was expelled after being sentenced for domestic abuse.
Identity and Democracy was a far-right political group of the European Parliament,launched on 13 June 2019 for the Ninth European Parliament term. It comprised far right,right-wing populist,Eurosceptic and nationalist national parties from six European states. It was the successor to the Europe of Nations and Freedom group formed during the eighth term and almost all of its members merged into the Patriots for Europe group formed during the tenth term.
Legislative elections were held in France on 12 and 19 June 2022 to elect the 577 members of the 16th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. The elections took place following the 2022 French presidential election,which was held in April 2022. They have been described as the most indecisive legislative elections since the establishment of the five-year presidential term in 2000 and subsequent change of the electoral calendar in 2002. The governing Ensemble coalition remained the largest bloc in the National Assembly but substantially lost its ruling majority,resulting in the formation of France's first minority government since 1993;for the first time since 1997,the incumbent president of France did not have an absolute majority in Parliament. As no alliance won a majority,it resulted in a hung parliament for the first time since 1988.
François Piquemal is a French politician and educator who was elected to represent the Haute-Garonne's 4th constituency in the 2022 legislative election. A member of La France Insoumise,Piquemal ran as a candidate of the left-wing New Ecologic and Social People's Union (NUPES) coalition in 2022. Piquemal previously served as a municipal councilor in Toulouse,Occitania.
Grégoire de Fournas de Brosse is a politican who represented the National Assembly Party in the National Assembly from 2022 to 2024. A member of the National Rally (RN),he has been a municipal councillor of Pauillac since 2020. De Fournas also held a seat in the Departmental Council of Gironde for the canton of Le Nord-Médoc from 2015 to 2021.
Legislative elections were held in France on 30 June and 7 July 2024 to elect all 577 members of the 17th National Assembly of the Fifth French Republic. The election followed the dissolution of the National Assembly by President Emmanuel Macron,triggering a snap election after the National Rally (RN) made substantial gains and Macron's Besoin d'Europe electoral list lost a significant number of seats in the 2024 European Parliament election in France.
The Republican alliance crisis was triggered by the formation of the Union of the Far-Right,an alliance between Éric Ciotti,the president of The Republicans (LR),and the National Rally (RN) ahead of the 2024 French legislative election. LR MPs and senators questioned claims the alliance was revolutionary. The senior members unanimously removed its president for unsanctioned negotiations and disrespect for party statutes,which was unprecedented in France. This broke the traditional cordon sanitaire against the far-right,a major party allying with the National Rally.
Dédiabolisation (de-demonisation) is a term used in French politics to describe the normalisation of the far-right Front National since the late-1980s.
