Politician, born in La-Trinite-sur-Mer, Brittany, NW France. He graduated in law at Paris before serving in the 1950s as a paratrooper in Indochina and Algeria, where he lost an eye in a street battle. In 1956 he won a National Assembly seat as a right-wing Poujadist. He was connected with the extremist Organisation de l'Armée Sécrète before forming the National Front in 1972. This party, with its extreme right-wing policies, emerged as a new fifth force in French politics in the 1986 Assembly elections, winning 10% of the national vote. A controversial figure and noted demagogue, he unsuccessfully contested the presidency in 1988 and 1995 (gaining 15% of the vote). Within the party, factions developed regarding tactics, with newer members rejecting Le Pen's direct-action approach. His decision to promote his wife to the top of the candidate's list for the 1999 parliamentary elections led to a split in the party and the establishment of a rival party, the National FrontNational Movement. His success in the first round of the 2002 presidential election (gaining 16·86% of the vote), knocked Lionel Jospin of the Socialist Party out of the race and caused widespread demonstrations across France.
Le Pen has run in several French presidential elections, qualifying for the second-round of the 2002 election, challenging incumbent president Jacques Chirac. Le Pen announced he seeks the 2007 presidency, but has challenges against moderate conservative Nicolas Sarkozy.
Le Pen focuses on issues related to immigration, the European union, traditional culture, and France's troubled economy.
Biography
Le Pen was born at La Trinité-sur-Mer, a small Breton harbour, as the son of a fisherman.
Le Pen studied political science and law at Paris II, and was at one time the president of an association of law students in Paris (the CORPO). His graduate studies thesis, presented in 1971 by Jean-Marie Le Pen and Jean-Loup Vincent, is entitled Le courant anarchiste en France depuis 1945 or "The anarchist movement in France since 1945". The youngest of his daughters, Marine Le Pen, is a senior officer of the Front National.
On May 31, 1991, Jean-Marie Le Pen married Jeanne-Marie Paschos ("Jany").
Political career
A decorated veteran of the French Foreign Legion 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 1958 Le Pen lost his left eye during an election campaign where he was savagely beaten. During this period, Le Pen also 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.
In 1984 and 1999 Le Pen won a seat in the European Parliament.
In 1997, the European Parliament, of which Le Pen himself was a member, removed his parliamentary immunity so that Le Pen could be tried by a German court for comments he made at a December 1996 press conference before the German Republikaner party. Le Pen stated there that: "If you take a 1,000-page book on World War II, the concentration camps take up only two pages and the gas chambers 10 to 15 lines. Le Pen had made a similar statement in France in 1987, which also caused him to be condemned in virtue of the Gayssot Act on negationism. In June 1999, a Munich court found this statement to be "minimizing the Holocaust, which caused the deaths of six million Jews," and convicted and fined Le Pen for his remarks.
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. There was a widespread stirring of national public opinion, and more than one million people in France took part in street rallies, slogans such as "vote for the crook, not the fascist" were heard 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.
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.
In recent years, Le Pen has tried to soften his image, with mixed success. He has maneuvered 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.
Issues
Le Pen remains a very polarizing figure in France. a 2002 IPSOS poll showed that while 22% of the electorate have a good or very good opinion of Mr Le Pen, and 13% an unfavorable opinion, 61% have a very unfavorable opinion. Indeed Le Pen and former National Front leader Bruno Mégret top the unfavorable ratings, with 74% and 75% respectively.
Le Pen and the National Front are described by much of the media and virtually all commentators except those from the Front to be far right. Earlier on in his political career Le Pen described his position as "Neither left nor right, but French" (Ni droite, ni gauche, français). He further contends that most of the French political and media class are corrupt and out of touch with the real needs of the common people, and conspire to exclude Le Pen and his party from mainstream politics. Le Pen criticizes the other political parties as the "establishment" and lumped all major parties (PC, PS, UDF, RPR (renamed UMP)) into the "Gang of Four" (la bande des quatre – an allusion to the Gang of Four during China's Cultural Revolution).
The international media often cites Jean-Marie Le Pen as a symbol of French xenophobia. Le Pen is also occasionally criticized in French and foreign pop songs. In standup comedy, Le Pen and Brigette Bardot, the famous actress who holds similar far-right political views, may make "a wonderful couple". Le Pen is dreaded by other political parties and groups like leftists (i.e.
Allegations of anti-Semitism and xenophobia
Le Pen has been criticized both at home and abroad for his xenophobia and perceived anti-Semitism. If he wasn't intentionally anti-Semitic and/or racially charged, Le Pen could be plain insensitive to the issues affecting France's racial and religious minorities. These openly verbal criticisms are considered to be unfounded by his supporters, but at several times Le Pen has been convicted for such remarks. Le Pen once made the infamous pun "Durafour-crématoire" ("crematory oven") about then minister Michel Durafour, a Jew. In February 1997, Le Pen accused President Chirac of being "on the pay roll of Jewish organizations, and particularly of the notorious B'nai B'rith".
Prosecution concerning historical revisionism
In 1997, the European Parliament, of which Le Pen himself was a member, removed his parliamentary immunity so that Le Pen could be tried by a German court for comments he made at a December 1996 press conference before the German Republikaner party. Le Pen stated there that: "If you take a 1,000-page book on World War II, the concentration camps take up only two pages and the gas chambers 10 to 15 lines. Le Pen had made a similar statement in France in 1987, which also caused him to be condemned in virtue of the Gayssot Act on negationism. In June 1999, a Munich court found this statement to be "minimizing the Holocaust, which caused the deaths of six million Jews," and convicted and fined Le Pen for his remarks.
Prosecution, allegations of torture and association with militarists
In April 2000 Le Pen was suspended from the European Parliament following prosecution for the physical assault of Socialist candidate Annette Peulvast-Bergeal during the 1997 general election.
It is also alleged that Le Pen practiced torture in Algeria, and Le Monde actually produced his dagger in court. Le Pen also sued for the same motive, in 1995, Jean Dufour, regional counsellor of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (French Communist Party) for the same reason, and also lost.
Jean-Marie Le Pen has also been criticized for his proximity with former members of the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), a terrorist movement against Algerian independence, including Roger Holeindre, member of the political bureau of the Front National and a former member of the OAS, and Roland Gaucher, a former collaborator of Nazi Germany, whom was a co-founder of the National Front in 1972.
Approbation on the Right
Some of Le Pen's statements led other right-wing groups, such as the Austrian Freedom Party, and some National Front supporters to distance themselves from him. Bruno Mégret left the National Front to found his own party (the National Republican Movement, MNR), claiming that Le Pen kept the Front away from the possibility of gaining power. Mégret wanted to emulate Gianfranco Fini's success in Italy by making it possible for right-wing parties to ally themselves with the Front, but claimed that Le Pen's attitude and outrageous speech prevented this. Le Pen's daughter Marine leads an internal movement of the Front that wants to "normalize" the National Front, "de-enclave" it, have a "culture of government" etc.;
As Le Pen, like other European nationalists in recent years, has made anti-American statements, he has received notice from American conservatives. Paleoconservative commentator Pat Buchanan contends that even though Le Pen "made radical and foolish statements," the EU violated his free speech rights. Today, the greatest threat to the freedom and independence of the nations of Europe comes not from Le Pen and that 17 percent of French men and women who voted for him.
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