The niece of France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen has founded her own political party, aiming to become a new force in the country’s growing right-wing bloc.
In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro on Monday, Marion Marechal, 34, announced the launch of Identite-Libertes, or IDL, of which she is president.
“I have decided to launch a political campaign to contribute to the victory of the national camp,” she told a French newspaper, referring to the coalition of right-wing parties that became the leading party in recent French elections and came close to winning a majority. did. Three major political alliances will be elected in the first round of voting on June 30th.
Centrist and left-wing blocs have combined to selectively withdraw candidates in several areas to prevent the right from gaining a majority in the second round, resulting in each political alliance receiving around a third of the votes. With only one vote, the Diet became dysfunctional.
The National Rally, originally called the Front National, is a far-right party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, Maréchal’s grandfather, and won more than 31 percent of the vote in the National Assembly elections at the end of June, making it France’s largest political party in terms of votes. It became. Share.
Maréchal said that although ideologically separate from the National Rally, the IDL would work as an ally and support Le Pen’s presidential bid in the 2027 election.
“My goal is to work in a coalition with Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella and Eric Ciotti,” Maréchal said. Bardera is the current president of the National Assembly (Le Pen was president from 2011 to 2021), while Ciotti is the leader of France’s right-wing Republican Party.
Five-year-old Marion Maréchal (third from left) holds the hand of her grandfather, French far-right nationalist politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, and leads the party he founded, the Front National. Front National – May 1, 1995 in Paris FN) and his wife Janie. On the far right are her mother Yann Le Pen and adoptive father Samuel Maréchal. Marine Le Pen is on her father’s right side (Yves Forestier/Sigma via Getty Images)
Who is Marion Marechal?
Marion Jeanne Caroline Maréchal is the granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the Front National (now renamed National Rally), and Marine Le Pen’s father. Marechal married Italian politician Vincenzo Sofo in 2021, and the couple have one daughter, Clotilde. Machal also has an older daughter from her first marriage to French businessman Mathieu Decourse, which ended in 2016.
Maréchal was initially a member of the National Rally. She was elected as a member of the National Assembly in 2012 at the age of 22, making her the youngest member of parliament in French history.
However, she did not seek re-election in 2017, resigned as a local councilor, and returned to politics in 2022, joining Eric Zemmour’s far-right party Reconquete.
In a bid to part ways with her family, Maréchal announced in 2018 that she would be changing her name from Marion Maréchal Le Pen, abandoning the surname of her grandfather, Jean-Marie, known for his inflammatory views on immigration and the Holocaust. She now only uses the surname of her adoptive father Samuel, who was also a member of the National Assembly from a young age. He married Yann Le Pen, sister of Maréchal’s mother, Marine.
In the June 2024 parliamentary elections, Maréchal heads the list of candidates for the reconquest of the European Parliament. Mr. Zemur gave her the task of negotiating with the National Assembly to draw up a single list of candidates for the election, but she believed he had set too many preconditions on potential alliances. , accused them of interfering with that.
Mr. Maréchal was elected to the European Parliament on June 9, 2024, joining the European Conservative and Reform Party (ECR) group, a centre-right political group within the parliament. A few days later, Zemur accused Maréchal of “betrayal” and expelled him from the party on June 12. Marechal said he will serve as an independent.
Marion Maréchal (right), then the leading candidate for France’s far-right party Reconqué in June’s European Parliament elections, and her husband, who attended the party’s European election campaign launch meeting at the Dome in Paris. Italian politician Vincenzo Sofo (left). Palais des Sports, Paris, March 10, 2024 (Adnan Farzat/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
What does her new party represent?
The party name – Identité-Libertés (Identity Freedom) – encapsulates its two main policy “pillars”. The party says it aims to protect France’s identity from immigration and so-called “Islamization,” as well as promoting France’s Christian traditions. On the other hand, it aims to protect freedom of expression and free enterprise.
Maréchal said IDL would move away from the “spiritual socialism” that drives France’s fiscal policy.
It can also be called “anti-wake.” The term “wake” comes from African American slang for someone who is aware of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and the denial of LGBTQ rights.
Marechal told Le Figaro that his party draws inspiration from other European success stories, particularly Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who became Italy’s first female prime minister as leader of the right-wing three-party coalition. He said he would work to strengthen the -Holding a wing party in 2022.
Maréchal said that she and Zemmour fell out of favor when Zemmour’s main opponents were Le Pen’s National Rally and Ciotti’s Republican Party, but she turned to the right wing to counter the left. He said he hoped to forge an alliance that would strengthen the bloc.
“I couldn’t abide by (his) decisions in order to be consistent,” she said.
Despite expressing support for their aunt, the two heirs of France’s far-right Le Pen dynasty, especially Marine Le Pen, who reiterated her position that the Holocaust was a “war,” expelled her father from the party in 2015. Since then, they have been at odds for a long time. Historical details.” Maréchal called the expulsion a “cruel betrayal.”
The two women also differ on the idea of forming a stronger alliance between centrist parties and the far-right, which Maréchal supports while Le Pen does not. is being rejected.
Will the IDL be a threat to the national convention?
The new party was formed as Le Pen and other senior party officials are on trial for allegedly embezzling European Union funds. If convicted, Le Pen and her co-defendants could each face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 1 million euros (approximately 110 million yen).
Last month, Le Pen told reporters upon arriving at a Paris criminal court that she was confident it would prove there was no wrongdoing.
Observers do not believe the IDL poses a major threat to the National Assembly.
Some Zemur supporters posted on X predicting that Maréchal’s party will become a “satellite” of the National Rally. Some have warned of the risk of extreme divisions within the right-wing camp, fearing that it will be weakened if it remains unable to unite.
Daniel Stockemer, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa, told Al Jazeera he doesn’t think the IDL will succeed as a political organization.
“This attempt by Marion Maréchal is rather a sign of desperation,” said Stockemer, whose research focuses on radical right-wing parties in Europe. “Her only option to continue her political career was to found her own political party.”
The National Rally has so far “survived all attempts to jeopardize the hegemony of the far right,” Stockemer added, adding that similar actions will continue in the future.
