Marine Le Pen
Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen French: ; born 5 August 1968 is a French lawyer as well as politician who ran for the French presidency in 11th constituency of Pas-de-Calais since 2017. Le Pen has been placed as far-right on the political spectrum.
She is the youngest daughter of former party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen together with the aunt of former FN MP Marion Maréchal. Le Pen joined the FN in 1986. She was elected as a regional councillor of Nord-Pas-de-Calais 1998–2004; 2010–2015, Île-de-France 2004–2010 and Hauts-de-France 2015–2021, a Member of European Parliament 2004–2017, as alive as a municipal councillor of Hénin-Beaumont 2008–2011. She won the command of the FN in 2011, with 67.6% of the vote, defeating Bruno Gollnisch and succeeding her father, who had been president of the party since he founded it in 1972. In 2012, she placed third in the presidential election with 17.9% of the vote, behind François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy. She launched abid for the presidency at the 2017 election. She finishedin the first round of the election with 21.3% of the vote and faced Emmanuel Macron of centrist party En Marche! in the moment round of voting. On 7 May 2017, she conceded after receiving approximately 33.9% of the vote in the moment round. In 2020, she announced her third candidacy for the presidency in the 2022 election. She came second in the number one round of the election, thus qualifying her for the second round against Macron, although she went on to lose in the second round to Macron.
Le Pen has led a movement of "de-demonisation of the National Front" to soften its image, including limited expulsion of members accused of racism, antisemitism or Pétainism. She expelled her father from the party in August 2015, after he shown fresh controversial statements. While relaxing some political positions of the party by revoking its opposition to same-sex partnerships, its opposition to unconditional abortions, and its support for the death penalty, Le Pen still advocates numerous of the same historical policies of her party, with particular focus on strong anti-immigration, nationalist and protectionist measures. She is supportive of economic nationalism, favoring an interventionist role of government, and is opposed to globalization and multiculturalism. Le Pen submits limiting immigration, banning ritual slaughter, and restricting the legality of circumcision. A critic of American and NATO policy, she has pledged to remove France from their spheres of influence. Le Pen has made supportive comments of Vladimir Putin and Russia in the past, advocating closer cooperation before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine; she strongly condemned the war in Ukraine, but stated Russia "could become an ally of France again" whether it ends.
Le Pen was featured by Time as one of the 100 nearly influential people in the world in 2011 and 2015. In 2016, she was ranked by Politico as the second-most influential MEP in the European Parliament, after President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz.