Jean-Marie Le Pen, 1928-2025

There are many rhythms in politics, in which, as the adage goes, “a week is a long time.” Sometimes. At other times, a lifetime is not long enough. Jean-Marie Le Pen played a long–a very long–game. He founded the Front National in 1972, more than half a century ago, and was a member of the Poujadiste movement before that. He ran for president of the Republic five times, losing each time, but in 2002 he caused a political cataclysm by edging out Lionel Jospin for a place in the second round of the presidential election.

The 2002 result was a warning shot that the far right had arrived. But only five years later, in 2007, the Front National seemed to be on the ropes, as Nicolas Sarkozy had moved the “governmental” right so far in its direction that the FN appeared to be on its last legs. Yet this apparent Berezina proved to be a victory in disguise. It diminished the distance between the governmental and the populist right, a process consummated by Macron’s fracture of Les Républicains, which split its more moderate elements off from the populist (Le Pen-compatible) rump. And thus we arrived at the political configuration that defines the French landscape today.

None of this was Jean-Marie Le Pen’s intention. He despised the “moderation” that has made his daughter’s Rassemblement National the dominant party on the right today. Despite the rift that separated father from daughter in the last years of his life, I’m sure that Marine is fully aware of what she owes Jean-Marie. Without him she never would have become the uncontested leader of France’s dominant protest party. Without him she wouldn’t have been able to carry off her “moderation” while retaining the reputation for menace and pugnacity and intolerance that her father had so richly earned.

Such is the paradox of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s life. He founded a party that has come from nothing to the brink of power, but by the time it reached that goal he had been expelled. He pioneered a style of populist politics that has been widely emulated: he was Trump before Trump in his willingness to offend the bien-pensant and ridicule the righteous of every persuasion. He was an unapologetic nationalist in an era of globalization and liberalization. And he clung stubbornly to fascist ways of thinking no matter how unfashionable they had become, certain that their appeal would ultimately be recognized once again.