Betrayal, a bomb, and a dead cat.
The Le Pen clan's history is marked by controversies and a bitter family feud – and is closely intertwined with the National Rally (RN) party, which now has a whiff of power in France.
Just west of Paris's city limits, near the Seine River, lies a massive "hôtel particulier" in a wealthy and gated area – Montretout. The 430-square-meter stone house is an important part of the parallel histories of the Le Pen family and the National Rally party (formerly the National Front).
On the outside, grand, on the inside, old, worn, and gloomy, according to one of the main characters: Marine Le Pen. Montretout was not only a home for the family but also a stronghold for the party.
Montretout was truly the party's hub, says author and journalist Olivier Beaumont, who wrote a book about the house, to the newspaper Ouest France.
Just like her father Jean-Marie, Marine Le Pen often invited politicians and business leaders to the estate before she finally, in 2014, at the age of 46, decided to move away completely. But it was neither her relationship with her father nor the house's dark and gloomy interior that became the last straw for the RN leader – but that her father's dogs, Sergent and Major, killed her cat, the Bengal Arthémis.
Yes, I cried, I'm very attached to my cats. I'm a cat mom. I even moved to protect the other cats, she said in a TV interview a year later.
Political upbringing
In the center of the Le Pen clan are three main characters. Patriarch Jean-Marie, leader Marine, and granddaughter and niece Marion, who has fallen out with her aunt.
And outside the family: Jordan Bardella, the party's star and so far the only one without the surname Le Pen to lead the party, who already at the age of 28 has set his sights on the prime minister's post. For a time, he was also in a relationship with one of Marine Le Pen's nieces, Nolwenn Olivier.
The National Front party was founded by, among others, Jean-Marie Le Pen in October 1972 on an anti-immigrant platform. His three daughters grew up in the midst of politics, at Montretout, where the family moved after a bomb detonated in their apartment building in Paris where they previously lived. Marine Le Pen was eight years old at the time.
"When I woke up, I was no longer a little girl like the others," Marine Le Pen writes about the bombing in her autobiography from 2006. The police said the explosion was an attempt to kill her father, but the perpetrators were never caught. Marine's political awareness was awakened by the act, she writes in the book.
Break with the father
In 2015, Marine Le Pen made international headlines when she openly broke with her father after his repeated statements that the Nazis' gas chambers were a "detail in history". She had taken over the role of party leader from her father four years earlier. Le Pen the elder was expelled from the party, but continued to contribute campaign funds. In an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien, Marine said:
Why should I behave like a daughter when he no longer behaves like a father? It was him or me.
She had already then teamed up with Florian Philippot, who later became a key figure in the party. He helped her to wash away the racist stigma that the party had long been associated with. The National Front shifted its focus from "nationalism" to "sovereignty", and that appealed to a new group of voters. The party gained strength and managed to mobilize.
Three years after the break, Marine Le Pen visited her father on Father's Day when he was hospitalized, but told journalists that it was as a daughter, not a politician, that she was there.
Candidate for president
Both Jean-Marie and Marine Le Pen have run for president and both have made it to the final round, but have seen themselves defeated by their opponents. The 2002 election received much attention when Jean-Marie Le Pen became the one to challenge the then-President Jacques Chirac, instead of a candidate from the Socialist Party.
Marine Le Pen, on the other hand, has twice in a row seen herself defeated by her opponent Emmanuel Macron. But her and the party's popularity have grown in recent years, and with three years left until the French presidential election, she is now confident of victory. Not least with the result from the EU election fresh in mind. It was a landslide victory for the RN, which gathered over 30 percent of the French votes.
"An unbelievable decision"
In the run-up to the 2022 presidential election, Marine Le Pen's niece Marion Maréchal unexpectedly turned her back on the party and her aunt. Instead, she chose to support Marine's main challenger in the election: the even more radical Éric Zemmour.
An unbelievable decision. Beyond the political aspect, there is also the personal, said a visibly shaken Marine Le Pen then to the French TV channel CNews.
The niece's decision was a betrayal that went straight to the heart of Marine. Just like her aunt, Marion was born into the party, with a special close bond to her grandfather Jean-Marie Le Pen. In 2012, she made headlines when she, at the age of 22, became the youngest member of the National Assembly in French history.
The rising star
On June 9, 2024, the results of the EU election were clear. Cheers erupted in the room when the well-groomed and well-dressed Jordan Bardella spoke to members and supporters of the RN:
Our fellow citizens have expressed a desire for change. Emmanuel Macron is a weakened president tonight.
The young Bardella, Marine Le Pen's heir apparent, has already had a brilliant political career within the party behind him. Inspired by the violent riots that shook Paris's suburbs in 2005, he became a member of the RN at the age of 17. Since then, he has climbed the ranks. In 2019, he became the party's top candidate in the EU election, and in the 2022 French presidential election, he was elected as Marine Le Pen's successor and top candidate in this year's EU election, helping his party to its best result ever.
In Montretout, just west of Paris, it is now quiet in the house. Shortly after Marine Le Pen moved away, silence fell, and the house whose role was once so important for the RN is now gathering dust. After the party and Marine Le Pen's move, the goal was instead another: the place where Jean-Marie Le Pen wrote his memoirs.
National Rally (Rassemblement national) was founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972 under the name National Front.
Ideologically, the party has its roots in conservative nationalism and fascism.
Has been led since 2011 by daughter Marine Le Pen, who has wanted to modernize the party's image. The party's anti-immigrant and populist core message remains, however.
In 2015, Jean-Marie Le Pen was expelled from the party, among other things, after calling the Nazis' gas chambers "a detail in history".
In 2018, the party changed its name to the current National Rally.
Marine Le Pen has stood as President Emmanuel Macron's opponent in the two most recent presidential elections, but has seen herself defeated both times.
In this year's EU election, the party won a landslide victory and gathered more than 30 percent of the French votes.
Source: National Encyclopedia
