Jean-Marie Le Pen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean-Marie Le Pen
Member of the European Parliament
In office 1984 – 10 April 2003 (stripped)
In office 10 June 2004 – Incumbent
Born	20 June 1928 (1928-06-20) (age 79) La Trinité-sur-Mer, France
Nationality	France
Political party	Front National
Spouse	Jeanne-Marie Paschos
Children	Three daughters, including Marine Le Pen
Religion	Roman Catholic

Jean-Marie Le Pen (born June 20, 1928, La Trinité-sur-Mer, France) is a French far-right nationalist politician, founder and president of the Front National (National Front) party.

Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, including in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than the main left candidate, Lionel Jospin. Le Pen lost in the second round to Jacques Chirac. Le Pen again ran in the 2007 French presidential election and finished fourth. His 2007 campaign, at the age of 78, makes him the oldest candidate for presidential office in France.

Le Pen focuses on immigration to France, the European Union, traditional culture, law and order and France's high rate of unemployment. He advocates immigration restrictions, the death penalty, raising incentives for homemakers,^[1] compulsory national service^{[citation needed]}, and euroscepticism. He has been charged with Holocaust denial several times.

Contents 1 Personal life and early career 2 Political career 2.1 1972-Present 3 Issues 3.1 Anti-Semitism and xenophobia 3.2 Prosecution concerning historical revisionism & Holocaust denial 3.3 Prosecution, allegations of torture and association with militarists 4 Comments on the Right 5 European Reform Treaty 6 Notes 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Personal life and early career

Le Pen was born in a small seaside village in Brittany, the son of a fisherman but then orphaned as an adolescent (pupille de la nation, brought up by the state), when his father's boat was blown up by a mine in 1942. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and studied at the Jesuit high school François Xavier in Vannes, then in the lycée of Lorient.

Aged 16, he was turned down (because of his age) by Colonel Henri de La Vaissière (then representant of the Communist Youth) when he attempted, in November 1944, to join the French Forces of the Interior (FFI).^[2] He then entered the faculty of law in Paris, and started to sell in the street the monarchist Action française 's newspaper, Aspects de la France^[3] (Action Française monarchist movement newspaper). He was repeatedly convicted of assault (coups et blessures).^[4] He became president of the Association corporative des étudiants en droit, an association of law students whose main occupation was to engage in street brawls against the "Cocos" (communists). He was excluded from this organisation in 1951, after a congress of the UNEF student union and having insulted, while drunk, an abbot.^[4]

After having received his law diploma, he enlisted in the Army in the Foreign Legion in Indochina, where he arrived after the 1954 Dien Bien Phu Battle^[4] (lost by France, and which prompted the President of the Council Pierre Mendès France to put an end to the war at the Geneva Conference). He was then sent to Suez (1956), but arrived only after the cease-fire.^[4] He was then sent to Algeria (1957) as an intelligence officer. He has been accused of having engaged in torture, but he denied it, although he recognized having known of its use.^[4] After his time in the military, he studied political science and law at Paris II. His graduate thesis, submitted in 1971 by Jean-Marie Le Pen and Jean-Loup Vincent, was titled Le courant anarchiste en France depuis 1945 or "The anarchist movement in France since 1945".

His marriage (June 29, 1960 - March 18, 1987) to Pierrette Lalanne resulted in three daughters; their daughters have given him nine granddaughters. Their break-up was somewhat dramatic, with his ex-wife posing nude in the French edition of Playboy to ridicule him.^[4] Marie-Caroline, another of his daughters, would also break with Le Pen, following her husband to join Bruno Mégret, who split from the FN to found MNR, the rival Mouvement National Républicain (National Republican Movement).^[4] The youngest of Le Pen's daughters, Marine Le Pen, is a senior member of the Front National.

In 1977 Le Pen inherited a fortune from Hubert Lambert, son of the cement industrialist of the same name. Hubert Lambert was a political supporter of Le Pen, as well as being a monarchist, an alcoholic, and in poor health.^[4] Lambert's will provided 30 million francs (approximatively 5 million euros) to LePen, as well as his castle in Montretout, Saint-Cloud (the same castle had been owned by Madame de Pompadour until 1748).^[4].

In the early 1980s, Le Pen's personal security was assured by KO International Company, a subsidiary of VHP Security, a private security firm, and an alleged front organisation for SAC, the Service d'Action Civique (Civic Action Service), a Gaullist organisation. SAC allegedly employed figures with organized crime backgrounds and from the far-right movement.^[5][6]

On May 31, 1991, Jean-Marie Le Pen married Jeanne-Marie Paschos ("Jany"), of Greek descent. Born in 1933, Paschos was previously married to Belgian businessman Jean Garnier.

[edit] Political career

Le Pen started his political career as the head of the student union in Toulouse. In 1953, a year after the beginning of the Algerian War, he contacted President Vincent Auriol, who approved Le Pen's proposed volunteer disaster relief project after a flood in the Netherlands. Within two days, there were 40 volunteers from his university, a group that would later help victims of an earthquake in Italy. In Paris in 1956, he was elected to the National Assembly as a member of Pierre Poujade's UDCA populist party. Le Pen, 28 years old, was the youngest member of the Assembly.

In 1957, he became the General Secretary of the Front National des Combattants (National Front of Combatants), a veteran's organization, as well as the first French politician to nominate a Muslim candidate, Ahmed Djebbour, an Algerian, who was elected in 1957 as deputy of Paris. The next year, following his break with Poujade, Le Pen was re-elected to the National Assembly as a member of the Centre National des Indépendants et Paysans (CNIP) party, led by Antoine Pinay. Le Pen claimed that he had lost his left eye when he was savagely beaten during the 1958 election campaign. Testimonies suggest however that he was only wounded in the right eye and did not lose it. He lost the sight in his left eye years later, due to an illness (popular belief that he wears a glass eye is untrue). During the 1950s, Le Pen took a close interest in the Algerian war (1954-62) and the French defense budget.

Le Pen then directed the 1965 presidential campaign of far-right candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, who obtained 5.19% of the votes. He insisted on the rehabilitation of the Collaborationists, declaring that:

"Was General de Gaulle more brave than the Marshall Pétain in the occupied zone? This isn't sure. It was much easier to resist in London than to resist in France."^[4]

During the 1961 Barricades Week in Algiers, Le Pen called for the barricades to be extended to Paris, and was afterward put in custody.^[7] The following year, he lost his seat at the Assembly. He created the Serp (Société d’études et de relations publiques) firm, a company involved in the music industry, which produced both chorals of the CGT trade-union or songs of the Popular Front and Nazi marches. The firm was condemned in 1968 for "praise of war crime and complicity" after the diffusion of songs from the Third Reich.^[4]

[edit] 1972-Present

In 1972, Le Pen founded the Front National (FN) party, along with former OAS member Jacques Bompard, former Collaborationist Roland Gaucher and others nostalgics of Vichy France, neo-nazi pagans, Catholic fundamentalists, etc.^[4] Le Pen presented himself for the first time in the 1974 presidential election, obtaining 0.74%.^[4] In 1976, his Parisian flat (he lived at that time in his castle of Montretout in Saint-Cloud) was dynamited. The affair never was elucidated.^[4] Le Pen then didn't manage to obtain the 500 signatures from "grand electors" (grands électeurs, mayors, etc.) necessary to present himself to the 1981 presidential election, won by the candidate of the Socialist Party (PS), François Mitterrand.

Criticizing immigration and taking advantage of the economic crisis striking France, and the world, since the 1973 oil crisis, Le Pen's party managed to increase its votes in the 1980s, starting in the municipal elections of 1983. His popularity has been greatest in the south of France. The FN obtained 10 percent at the 1984 European elections. 34 FN deputies entered the Assembly after the 1986 elections, which were won by the right wing, bringing Jacques Chirac to Matignon in the first cohabitation (that is, of the combination of a right-wing Prime minister, Chirac, with a socialist President, Mitterrand).

In 1984 and 1999, Le Pen won a seat in the European Parliament. In 1988 he lost a reelection bid for the Parliament of France in the 8th District of Bouches-du-Rhône. He was defeated in the second round by Socialist Marius Masse[2]. In 1992 and 1998 he was elected to the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.

Le Pen ran in the French presidential elections in 1974, 1988, 1995, 2002 and 2007. He did not run for office in 1981, having failed to gather the necessary 500 signatures of elected officials. In the presidential elections of 2002, Le Pen obtained 16.86 percent of the votes in the first round of voting. This was enough to qualify him for the second round, as a result of the poor showing by the Socialist candidate and incumbent prime-minister Lionel Jospin and the scattering of votes among 15 other candidates. This was a major political event, both nationally and internationally, as it was the first time someone with such extremist views had qualified for the second round of the French presidential elections. 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 percent of the votes, thus securing the biggest majority in the history of the Fifth Republic.

In the 2004 regional elections, Le Pen intended to run for office in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region 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.^{[citation needed]}

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, who worry about the emergence of a possible Le Pen family dynasty.

[edit] Issues

See also National Front for a summary of Le Pen's manifesto.

Le Pen remains a polarizing figure in France and opinions regarding him tend to be quite strong. A 2002 IPSOS poll showed that while 22 percent of the electorate have a good or very good opinion of Le Pen, and 13 percent an unfavorable opinion, 61 percent have a very unfavorable opinion.^[8]

Le Pen and the National Front are described by much of the media and nearly all commentators as far right. Le Pen himself and the rest of his party disagree with this label; Earlier on in his political career, Le Pen described his position as "Neither left nor right, but French" (Ni droite, ni gauche, français). He later described his position as right-wing and opposed to the "socialo-communists" and other right-wing parties, which he deems are not real right-wing parties. At other times, for example during the 2002 election campaign, he declared himself "economically right-wing, socially left-wing, and nationally French". 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) 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 Le Pen as a symbol of French xenophobia. He is also occasionally criticized in French and foreign pop songs. Le Pen has drawn many comparisons to Adolf Hitler's early political career in the international media.

[edit] Anti-Semitism and xenophobia

Le Pen has been accused both at home and abroad of xenophobia and anti-Semitism. 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" ("four crématoire" meaning "crematory oven") about then minister Michel Durafour, who had said in public a few days before "One must exterminate the National Front".^[9] The corpses of the victims of the Nazi gas chambers were incinerated in such ovens.^[10]
• In February 1997, Le Pen accused Chirac of being "on the pay roll of Jewish organizations, and particularly of the B'nai B'rith".
• In May 1987 he advocated isolating those infected with HIV (whom he calls "sidaïques"^[11]) from society by placing them in a special "sidatorium". "Sidaïque" is a word coined by Le Pen, meaning "person infected with AIDS" (the correct word in French is "séropositif" – see serology). Sidaïque takes on a pejorative connotation.
• On June 21, 1995, he attacked singer Patrick Bruel on his policy of no longer singing in the city of Toulon because the city had just elected a mayor from the National Front. Le Pen said "the city of Toulon will then have to get along without the vocalisations of singer Benguigui". Benguigui, a Jewish name, is Bruel's real name.
• In 2005, he claimed that the occupation of France by Nazi Germany "was not particularly inhumane".^[12].
• In June 2006, he claimed that the French World Cup squad contained too many non-white players, and was not an accurate reflection of French society. He went on to scold players for not singing La Marseillaise, saying they were not 'French'.^[13]
• In the 2007 election campaign, he referred to fellow candidate Nicolas Sarkozy as 'foreign' or 'the foreigner' due to Sarkozy's Hungarian heritage.^[14]

His supporters stressed on the other hand that his close team includes people of various ethnic or religious origins, Jews like Jean-Pierre Cohen, of North African origin as Farid Smahi, or Caribbean as Huguette Fatna. They also argue that part of the Jewish community in France would come close to its ideas, feeling a pressure of anti-Semitism in France whose responsibility would mostly attributed to Muslim immigration as Jean-Marie Le Pen considers responsible for many problems in France and in Europe. In fact, Jean-Marie Le Pen would have gradually lost his left eye following a traumatic cataract, resulting from a fight during an election on March 28, 1958, where he defended Djebbour Ahmed, a French Algerian.

[edit] Prosecution concerning historical revisionism & Holocaust denial

Le Pen has made several provocative statements concerning the Holocaust, which amount to historical revisionism. Thus, on September 13, 1987 he said: "I ask myself several questions. I'm not saying the gas chambers didn't exist. I haven't seen them myself. I haven't particularly studied the question. But I believe it's just a detail in the history of World War II." He was condemned to pay 1.2 million Francs (183,200 Euros).^[15] In 1997, the European Parliament, of which Le Pen was then 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. This is what one calls a detail." 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.^[16][17]

[edit] 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. This ultimately led to him losing his seat in the European parliament in 2003.

Le Pen allegedly practiced torture during the Algerian War (1954-62), when he was a lieutenant in the French Army. Although he denied it, he lost a trial when he attacked Le Monde newspaper on charges of defamation, following accusations by the newspaper that he had used torture. Le Monde has produced in May 2003 the dagger he allegedly used to commit war crimes as court evidence.^[18]

Although war crimes committed during the Algerian War of Independence are amnestied in France, this was publicised by the newspapers Le Canard Enchaîné and Libération, Le Monde and by Michel Rocard (ex-Prime Minister) on TV (TF1 1993). Le Pen sued the papers and Michel Rocard. This affair ended in 2000 when the "Cour de cassation" (French supreme jurisdiction) concluded that it was legitimate to publish these assertions. However, because of the amnesty and the statute of limitations, there can be no criminal proceedings against Le Pen for the crimes he is alleged to have committed in Algeria. In 1995, Le Pen unsuccessfully sued Jean Dufour, regional counselor of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (French Communist Party) for the same reason.^{[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]}

Le Pen has also been criticized for ties to suspect individuals, such as:

• Roger Holeindre, a member of the political bureau of the Front National and a former member of the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), a movement against Algerian independence. However, Holeindre was also an anti-Nazi resister during the Second World War^{[27][unreliable source?]}
• Roland Gaucher, a co-founder of the National Front in 1972 who was also a former RNP member.

[edit] Comments on the Right

Some of Le Pen's statements led other far-right groups, such as the Austrian Freedom Party,^[28] 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.; however, relations with Le Pen and other supporters of the hard line are complex.^[29] Over the years, Le Pen gained widespread popularity among neo-Nazis and white nationalists throughout Europe and North America.

As Le Pen, like many other European nationalists in recent years, has made statements highly critical of American foreign policy and culture, he has received notice from American conservatives. Controversial author Ann Coulter called him an anti-American adulterer but said his anti-immigration, anti-Muslim message "finally hit a nerve with voters" after years of irrelevance.^[30] Paleoconservative commentator Pat Buchanan contends that even though Le Pen "made radical and foolish statements," the EU violated his right to freedom of speech.^[31] He wrote:

As it is often the criminal himself who is first to cry, "Thief!" so it is usually those who scream, "Fascist!" loudest who are the quickest to resort to anti-democratic tactics. Today, the greatest threat to the freedom and independence of the nations of Europe comes not from Le Pen and that 17% of French men and women who voted for him. It comes from an intolerant European Establishment that will accept no rollback of its powers or privileges, nor any reversal of policies it deems "progressive".^[31]

He has has also been fiercely criticized by the far-right Jewish group Jewish Task Force.^[32]

[edit] European Reform Treaty

Le Pen has been a vocal critic of the European Reform Treaty (formally known as the Treaty of Lisbon) which is due to be ratified by EU member states before January 1st, 2009. In October 2007, Le Pen has suggested that he will personally visit the Republic of Ireland to assist the "No" campaign. Ireland will be the only EU country which will have a citizen referendum whereas all other EU states will ratify the treaty by parliament. (A ratification by parliament is also required in Ireland, however, on the assumption that the referendum passes the Amendment, such ratification would be merely a formality, given the two largest parties - Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - are supporters of the treaty)

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• Politics of France
• History of far right movements in France

[edit] External links

• Le Pen on Al Jazeera English's Riz Khan show
• Official 2007 Campaign site
• FYI France, "The Front National" (extensive bibliography, works in English & French & other)
• (French) Jean-Marie Le Pen, biography and the French election in 2002 in French
• Jean Marie Le Pen - Blog
• 2002 interview with Le Pen
• Jews for Le Pen

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (May 2007)

v • d • e Candidates in the 2007 French presidential election Nicolas Sarkozy • Ségolène Royal • François Bayrou • Jean-Marie Le Pen • Olivier Besancenot • Philippe de Villiers • Marie-George Buffet • Dominique Voynet • Arlette Laguiller • José Bové • Frédéric Nihous • Gérard Schivardi