Estrangement from her father. Controversial campaign flyers.
A presumed ally of Vladimir Putin. These
are just a few of the things the world doesn't know about French politician Marine Le Pen.
In November 1976, while Marine Le Pen and her family were sleeping, a bomb tore through their
apartment building. The then-8-year-old and her sisters were abruptly woken to
pieces of broken glass and debris everywhere. The bomb was reportedly meant for her father,
Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was president of the National Front at the time. Four other residents
who lived in the building were injured, and a baby fell from the 5th floor during the explosion.
In her memoir titled Against the Flow, Le Pen recalled the horrific incident. In her book,
she illustrates the aftermath in words and images, including pictures of her
family photos being scattered all over the street and their rabbit Rainbow
"vitrified" on their sofa. She wrote in her autobiography,
"It took that night of horror for me to discover that my father ... was in
politics. [...] That night I went to sleep like all little girls my age.
But when I woke, I was no longer a little girl like the others."
The culprits were reportedly never caught for the heinous act, but thankfully no one was killed.
Marine Le Pen's mother, Pierrette Lalanne, left her husband and children when Le Pen was 15 years
old. According to author Cecile Alduy, Pierrette's departure was sudden and without warning.
Le Pen was heartbroken and didn't speak to her mother for 15 years.
In her autobiography, she detailed her parents' very public split, writing:
"For a month and a half I vomited every day. I was incapable of feeding myself. [...] What I
suffered was the most awful, cruel, crushing of pains of the heart: my mother did not love me."
In 1987, Le Pen's mother posed in the 23rd issue of Playboy Magazine's French edition in an
attempt to get back at her ex-husband. Pierrette dressed up in a French maid costume for the shoot
to mock Jean-Marie, who told her she should look for work as a maid when she attempted
to claim part of the couple's property. Her daughters weren't happy about the photos,
and in an interview with Paris Match Magazine, middle child Yann Le Pen said,
"[My mother] had hurt Papa, and that was the goal, but she also hurt us."
Biographer Cecile Alduy told NPR that Marine Le Pen's last
name "was always a burden." She continued, saying,
"She has described how being the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen as
the National Front was emerging as a new controversial force,
on one hand, led her to idealize her father, who was greatly criticized. But she also suffered."
Le Pen didn't grow up with many friends. She felt that she and her sisters were shunned
because of their father's legacy, which followed them even in adulthood. Le Pen told France 24:
"It wasn't easy for people to go out with [me]. I remember one man chose to break up with me,
the pressure from his social circle was so heavy."
Supposedly, Le Pen and her sisters were treated pretty cruelly in school. The teachers would call
them quote, "daughters of a fascist," according to The Guardian. Alduy feels that this rejection
from those around her led her to stick close to her father and the National Front party.
Marine Le Pen has advanced studies in criminal law and six years of legal practice under her belt.
In 1991, Le Pen received a law degree from the University of Panthéon-Assas.
She continued her studies for another year at the university, earning an advanced degree in
criminal law. After becoming an attorney, Le Pen practiced law from 1992 to 1998 in Paris.
During her time as an attorney, she reportedly did some pro-bono work
defending immigrants who were facing exile from France. Le Pen eventually left her law
career after taking on a more significant role within the National Front party.
She climbed the ranks in the party and used her law background when she became
the party's director of legal affairs. From there, she became the Vice President of the
Party in 2003. In a 2014 interview with Time, she explained how she got into politics, saying,
"I was not really conscious of it. I fell into it. I was weaned on politics my whole
life. I tried to get away from politics, to be a lawyer, but it always caught me, like a virus."
Marine Le Pen is generally tight-lipped regarding her love life and her children. Nevertheless,
she’s been with some National Front Party members who ironically aren’t photographed much!
In 1995, Le Pen married Franck Chauffroy. Despite sharing three children together,
the couple divorced in 2000. In 2002, she went on to marry Eric Loiro.
Their love life only lasted a mere presidential term of four years.
Although it’s been hush-hush on whether she’s since remarried, Le Pen has reportedly been
in a long-term relationship with Louis Aliot for the past 13 years.
Despite her quiet demeanor about her personal life, she did say the
"psychological difficulties" of being a single mother to three children have prepared her to
be President of France. While speaking to a group of voters in Reims, France, she said,
"Such ordeals instruct you and construct you."
In 2011, when Marine Le Pen took over as the president of the National Front,
she reportedly worked hard to guide the party far away from its prejudiced and
anti-Semitic history. In May of 2015, she made a bold decision.
Le Pen suspended her father from the party because he had restated comments that he previously made
regarding the horrors of the holocaust "a mere detail of history," according to The Guardian.
Jean-Marie Le Pen initiated a legal challenge after the suspension, and on July 2, 2015,
a court reversed the decision made by his daughter. It was ruled that the appropriate
steps had not been taken in the suspension. However, after an extraordinary general meeting,
he was officially expelled. According to BBC News, Marine Le Pen said:
"[My father should] no longer be able to speak in the name of the National Front."
In a written press release about her father's banishment, Le Pen added:
"[My father's] status as honorary president does not give him the
right to hijack the Front National with vulgar provocations seemingly designed to damage me,
but which unfortunately hit the whole movement."
In 2017, when Marine Le Pen was in a showdown with Emmanuel Macron for a presidential runoff,
Jean-Marie Le Pen told RTL radio that he disliked his daughter's campaign, saying,
"I think her campaign was too laid-back.
If I'd been in her place, I would have had a Trump-like campaign, a more open one,
very aggressive against those responsible for the decadence of our country, whether left or right."
"And we will make America great again."
Throughout her political career,
Marine Le Pen has made a point to state that she and her father's political stances
are relatively different. In an interview with Time, Le Pen said this about her dad:
"My father spent a good part of his life fighting traces of
ultra-communism. And I've spent a good chunk of my life fighting against ultra-liberalism.
Obviously the context and the threats have changed."
In an exclusive interview with the Le Journal du Dimanche, Jean-Marie was asked if he thought his
daughter could become Head of State. While he said she had "the ambition," he didn't
think his daughter had the quote, "ethical means nor the political means" to do so.
Le Pen's father also disclosed that he would not vote for his own daughter
unless she changed how she was operating things and would not support her in any way whatsoever.
"I believe a more energetic campaign and a less sanitized one would have had more impact."
According to the French investigation website Mediapart, an investigation report that the
European Union anti-fraud office forwarded to French investigators alleges that during
Marine Le Pen's time as a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2017,
she redirected EU funds to the tune of 137,000 euros.
Le Pen's attorney, Rodolphe Bosselut, has stated that he was "dismayed" by the actions undertaken
by the EU anti-fraud office. He also claims that parts of the report are associated with decade-old
information and stated that his client opposes the charges. Supposedly, in 2010, Le Pen spent
5,000 euros on hotel accommodations for 13 members of the far-right party for the European Regions
and the Financial Crisis conference. According to one of the party's members,
the conference allegedly served as a cover for the group to converse about the party's presidency.
For some time now, Marine Le Pen has been thought
of as an ally of Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
"I think Europe needs to restore the relationship with Russia."
She has refuted those accusations in the past, stating they were "inaccurate and particularly
unjust." In 2022, Le Pen faced backlash for supposedly being too friendly with Russia
amidst the war in Ukraine. She made headlines after revealing she doesn't support the sanctions
against Russia when it comes to gas and oil. In an interview with France Inter Radio, she said,
"I am perfectly in favor of all the other sanctions.
I do not want French people to suffer the consequences of sanctions."
During her 2022 presidential campaign, Marine Le Pen was once again mired in controversy.
A Jewish group associated with Le Pen's National Rally Party
has allegedly urged her to replace her campaign posters where she uses the
"OK" signal known to be used by white supremacists. National Jewish Rally
leader Jean-Richard Sulzer, who worked with Le Pen on her 2012 presidential campaign, stated,
"If she does not change the photo, we will call to vote for [French President
Emmanuel] Macron [...] It's a wink to the supremacists, saying I am one of you."
Christophe Capuano, professor of contemporary history at France's University of Grenoble
Alpes, took to social media to post campaign photos of Le Pen and Macron,
where the two make nearly identical poses. However, in the photo,
Le Pen makes the controversial hand gesture. In French, Capuano tweeted,
"Poster of Marine Le Pen for the second-round campaign. Does this remind you of anything?"
However, no reports indicated whether or not Le Pen replaced the campaign photos. Le Pen
would go on to lose the 2022 presidential election to incumbent Emmanuel Macron.
It was Le Pen's second consecutive loss to Macron.
This time, however, Macron's margin of victory over Le Pen was smaller than in 2017,
making it likely that she'll make another run for president in the foreseeable future.
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