Le Pen's Party Jean Marie

Le Pen's Party Jean Marie Le Pen was born in La Trinite-sur-Mer, a small Breton harbor town on June 20, 1928. He was the son of a fisherman, but was orphaned as an adolescent when his father's boat was blown up by a mine. He studied political science and law and at one time was president of an association of law students in Paris. He has three daughters from his first marriage in 1960, the youngest of whom, Marine Le Pen, is a ranking officer of the National Front.

In 1991 he was married for the second time to Jeanne-Marie Paschos. After being decorated for his service as an, "elite paratrooper in Indochina and Algeria, two dirty, disastrous wars that left many French soldiers filled with an abiding hatred for all politicians, whom, they believed, had betrayed them and their nation," Le Pen started his political career in Toulouse when he became the head of the students union.

In 1953, he contacted Vincent Auriol, President of the Republic at the time, and using his connections got approval for a volunteer rescue project to carry out disaster relief after a flood in the Netherlands. Within two days there were forty volunteers from his university, and the same group would go on to help victims of an earthquake in Italy.

In 1956, he graduated from law school, and as a member of the party of Pierre Poujade, he became the youngest member of the French National Assembly, becoming noteworthy by his criticism President de Gaulle's Algerian policy. In 1957, he became the General Secretary of the National Front of Combatants (FNC). The next year, he was re-elected as deputy to the National Assembly and was affiliated with the parliamentary party National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP), led by Antoine Pinay.

During this period, Le Pen became active in issues of the war and defense budget. In 1965, Le Pen became the director of the presidential campaign of far-right candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, in and in 1972 founded the nationalist party, National Front. The electoral results of the National Front have been on the rise since the municipal elections of 1983. With his warnings of the threat to French life from North African immigration, Le Pen pushed his share of the presidential vote up from 0.74% in 1974, to 14% in 1988, and 15% in 1995.

Le Pen became a member of the European parliament in 1984. In 1986 his party won 35 seats in Parliament, in spite of a move by President Francois Mitterrand that changed the voting system in order to make it more difficult for the mainstream right. Although his party won a number of seats in the national assembly during the late 1980s, it was unsuccessful in the 1988 elections. However, his presidential campaign in 1988 was supported by four million voters. Le Pen is associated in the minds of his opponents with bigotry, bullying and belligerence.

In 1987 he described the holocaust as a "detail of history," and in 1990 he was convicted of inciting racial hatred for making statements casting doubt on the Nazi persecution of Jews and Gypsies. In 1992 and again in 1998 he was elected to the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur. His political career has been most successful in the south of France. In 1997 he ran afoul of the law for an election fight with a Socialist rival. That incident almost cost him his seat in the European Parliament.

His views against immigration and his strong support for national defense have aroused passionate feelings in France. He was stripped of his seat in 2000 as a result of his 1998 conviction for assaulting a rival politician, but it was later restored by the courts pending an appeal, which he lost in 2003. Le Pen has run in four presidential elections, 1974, 1988, 1995 and 2002, but the 2002 campaign has been his best result by far, accumulating 16.86% of the vote in the first round, which was enough to qualify him for the second round.

This was a major event, not only in France, but in Europe. It was the first time a right-wing candidate had qualified for the second round. The response was dramatic. Over one million people rallied against Le Pen's candidacy and he was soundly defeated by the incumbent president Jacques Chirac in the second round, who received 82% of the vote. After more than 25 years since its founding, the National Front is still a small organization, although it continues to grow steadily.

Le Pen won 15% of votes in the first round of the 1995 presidential elections, but his party frequently wins 30 to 35% of the votes in local elections in some regions and it now controls city hall in three towns. The Front also has been making inroads into several unions, including those of the police and transportation workers, and its latest drive is to recruit voters among prisoners.

In 2004 Le Pen tried to run for office in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region, but was prevented from doing so because he did not meet the qualifications for being a voter in that region, as he did not live there nor did he pay taxes there. Le Pen complained that this was a conspirarcy to prevent him from obtaining public office, but there has been speculation that he knew in advance he would be disqualified, but did not want to risk losing.

Le Pen has been a very controversial figure in France. While he has a hard core of supporters, his unfavorable rating is very high. In a poll conducted before the 2002 final election for the presidency, 22% had a good or very good opinion of him, 13% had a favorable opinion, but 61% had a very unfavorable opinion. On May 1, 2002, over a million people marched throughout France in protest against Le Pen. Part of the explanation for why Le Pen arouses such strong emotions in people is because of remarks he has made.

He has a history particularly of anti-Semitic remarks, having been convicted of making racist and anti-Semitic remarks five times. On September 13, 1987, he made comments referring to the holocaust as a minor detail of the Second World War, for which he was fined $20,000. In referring to the Finance Minister, Michael Durafour, a Jew, he made a pun using the words "Durafour-crematoire" (crematory ovens). On June 21, 1995, he verbally attacked Patrick Bruel, a Jewish singer whose real name is Benguigui. Mr.

Bruel had refused to perform in the city of Toulon because they had just elected a mayor who was a member of the National Front party. In 1997 he accused President Chirac of being in the pay of Jewish organizations, particularly B'nai B'rith. Nor are the Jewish people Le Pen's only target. In May 1987, he proposed that those affected with AIDS be isolated from society in special camps he called sidatorium. In 2005, he referred to the occupation of France by Nazi Germany as not particularly inhumane.

He seemed to ignore the actions of the Nazis in deporting Jews to concentration camps, retaliating against civilians in order to punish resistance groups, and the forced labor of civilians. In addition his acquaintance with former Nazi and Vichy officials is troubling. Le Pen has equated immigration with invasion, saying that immigration from the Third World brings nothing but crime and disease.

"He blames France's surge in violent crimes squarely on emigrants from North and West Africa." He wants to stop immigration totally, a view that is echoed by other right-wing parties across Europe. "Stop immigration totally, stop letting family members in,' says Le Pen, 'deport all illegal immigrants.' Such language resonates across Europe, which is being swamped by a flood Third World immigrants and criminal elements.

Right-wing parties in Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Holland, Austria, and Switzerland are making similar demands." He has also called for slashing taxes and government spending, a crackdown on crime, French withdrawal from the European Union, and an investigation of corruption among the political elite. Indeed, a large part of the support for Le Pen is seen as a vote against President Chirac and his government, and of the impatience of the French with respect to the reduction in crime.

The electoral campaign had focused on an increase in crime in recent years. Le Pen advocates tough law-and-order policies. Le Pen's party, the National Front, reached its zenith in the presidential election of 2002. Its popularity is tied to the popularity of its leader. Since the election of 2002, the National Front has ceased to be a force in national French politics, as has Le Pen. Ironically, Le Pen's appointment of his daughter to a leadership position in the National Front has caused a rift between them.

She has attempted to moderate the views of the National.