Editing Jean-Marie Le Pen (section)

===National Front===
In 1972, Le Pen founded the [[National Front (France)|Front National]] (FN) party. He then ran in the [[1974 French presidential election|1974 presidential election]], obtaining 0.74% of the vote.<ref name="BioRFI"/> In 1976, his Parisian apartment was blown up with dynamite (he had been living at that time in his [[hôtel particulier|mansion]] of Montretout in Saint-Cloud). The crime was never solved.<ref name="BioRFI"/> Le Pen then failed to obtain the 500 signatures from "grand electors" (''grands électeurs'', mayors, etc.) necessary to present himself in the [[1981 French presidential election|1981 presidential election]], won by the candidate of the [[Socialist Party (France)|Socialist Party]] (PS), [[François Mitterrand]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mas |first=Marie-Laure |date=2 February 2012 |title=1981–2007. Le FN face à la "galère" des 500 signatures |url=https://www.nouvelobs.com/politique/election-presidentielle-2012/20120202.OBS0471/1981-2007-le-fn-face-a-la-galere-des-500-signatures.html |access-date=4 June 2024 |website=Le Nouvel Obs |language=fr}}</ref>

Criticising 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 support in the 1980s, starting in the municipal elections of 1983. His popularity was higher in the south and east of France. The FN obtained 16 seats in the [[1984 European Parliament election|1984 European elections]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.europe-politique.eu/elections-europeennes-1984.htm |title=Élections européennes 1984 |last=de Boissieu |first=Laurent |website=europe-politique.eu |access-date=8 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408170619/https://www.europe-politique.eu/elections-europeennes-1984.htm |archive-date=8 April 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A total of 35 FN deputies – including Le Pen, who was elected for Paris<ref name="Base_de_données"/> – entered the National Assembly after the [[1986 French legislative election|1986 elections]] (the only legislative elections held under proportional representation). 

In 1984, Le Pen won a seat in the [[European Parliament]] and was consistently reelected since then. In 1988 he lost his reelection bid for the National Assembly in [[Bouches-du-Rhône]]'s [[Bouches-du-Rhône's 8th constituency|8th constituency]] when he was defeated in the second round by [[Socialist Party (France)|Socialist]] {{ill|Marius Masse|fr}}.<ref>[http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/11/tribun/fiches_id/2110.asp Marius Masse] biography</ref> In 1991 Le Pen's invitation to London by Conservative MPs was militantly protested by large numbers coordinated by the Campaign Against Fascism in Europe (CAFE), which led to a surge of anti-fascist groups and activity across Europe. In 1992 and 1998 he was elected to the [[Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tempest |first1=Rone |title=Major Gains Seen for French Rightist Le Pen : Elections: With Socialists' support falling and anti-immigrant bias high, radical National Front soars in polls. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-21-mn-3995-story.html |access-date=12 January 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=21 March 1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Fitchett |first1=Joseph |title=In Some Regions, Le Pen's Party Is Arbiter : Jospin Happy That Vote Did Not Chastise Left |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/17/IHT-in-some-regions-le-pens-party-is-arbiter-jospin-happy-that-vote-did-not.html |access-date=12 January 2025 |work=New York Times |date=17 March 1998}}</ref>

[[File:Jean-Marie Le Pen a son maison.jpg|left|thumb|Jean-Marie Le Pen, November 2005]]

Le Pen ran in the presidential elections in 1974, 1988, 1995, 2002, and 2007. As noted above, he was not able to run for office in 1981, as he failed to gather the necessary 500 signatures of elected officials. In the [[2002 French presidential election|presidential elections of 2002]], Le Pen obtained 16.86% of the votes in the first round of voting, obtaining second place after incumbent President Jacques Chirac.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/decision/2002/2002109PDR.htm |title=Décision n° 2002-109 PDR du 24 avril 2002 |date=24 April 2002 |website=[[Constitutional Council of France]] |language=fr |access-date=8 April 2019 }}</ref> This was enough to qualify him for the second round, as a result of the poor showing by the center-left PS candidate and incumbent prime minister [[Lionel Jospin]] and the scattering of votes between 15 other candidates. This was a major political event, both nationally and internationally, as it was the first time someone with such far-right views had qualified for the second round of a French presidential election. There was a widespread stirring of national public opinion as virtually the entire French political spectrum from the centre-right to the left united in fierce opposition to Le Pen's ideas. More than one million people in France took part in street rallies; slogans such as "A crook is better than a fascist" (''Un escroc mieux qu'un facho'') and "Graft rather than hate, Chirac rather than Le Pen" (''L'arnaque plutôt que la haine, Chirac plutôt que Le Pen'') were heard in opposition to Le Pen.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.humanite.fr/contre-le-pen-le-sursaut-civique-264163 |title=Contre Le Pen, le sursaut civique |date=23 April 2002 |website=[[L'Humanité]] |language=fr |access-date=20 April 2022 }}</ref> Le Pen was then defeated by a large margin in the second round, in which President Chirac obtained 82% of the votes, thus securing the biggest majority in the history of the [[Fifth French Republic|Fifth Republic]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/decision/2002/2002111PDR.htm |title=Décision n° 2002-111 PDR du 8 mai 2002 |date=8 May 2002 |website=[[Constitutional Council of France]] |language=fr |access-date=8 April 2019 }}</ref>

In the [[2004 French regional elections|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. However, he was planned to be the FN's top candidate in the region for the [[2010 French regional elections|2010 regional elections]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.frontnational.com/?p=1274 |title=FN list of candidates |publisher=Frontnational.com |date=25 August 2008 |access-date=13 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091002190335/http://www.frontnational.com/?p=1274 |archive-date= 2 October 2009 }}</ref>

Le Pen again ran in the [[2007 French presidential election|2007 presidential election]] and finished fourth.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/decision/2007/2007139PDR.htm |title=Décision n° 2007-139 PDR du 25 avril 2007 |date=25 April 2007 |website=[[Constitutional Council of France]] |language=fr |access-date=8 April 2019 }}</ref> His 2007 campaign, at the age of 78 years and 9 months, made him the oldest presidential candidate in [[History of France|French history]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c84z7pl4193o | title=Obituary: Jean-Marie le Pen, founder of French far right }}</ref>

Le Pen was a vocal critic of the European Reform Treaty (formally known as the [[Treaty of Lisbon]]) which was signed by EU member states on 13 December 2007 and entered into force on 1 December 2009. In October 2007, Le Pen suggested that he would personally visit Ireland to assist the "No" campaign but finally changed his mind, fearing that his presence would be more of a hindrance than a benefit to the campaign. Ireland finally refused to ratify the treaty. Ireland was the only EU country that held a citizen referendum. All other EU states, including France, ratified the treaty by parliamentary vote, despite a previous citizen referendum where over 55% of French voters rejected the European Reform Treaty (although that vote was on a different draft of the Treaty in the form of the Constitutional Treaty). After the Irish "No" vote, Le Pen addressed the French President [[Nicolas Sarkozy]] in the [[European Parliament]], accusing him of furthering the agenda of a "cabal of international finance and free market fanatics". Ireland later accepted the treaty in a second Lisbon referendum.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8288181.stm|title=Ireland backs EU's Lisbon Treaty|publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=21 October 2009 | date=3 October 2009 | location=London}}</ref>

After Le Pen left office in January 2011, his daughter [[Marine Le Pen]] was elected by the adherents of the party over [[Bruno Gollnisch]]. He became honorary chairman of the party<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/le-corre_france-a-critical-player.pdf|title=FRANCE: A CRITICAL PLAYER IN A WEAKENED EUROPE|last=LE CORRE|first=PHILIPPE|date=April 2017|website=brookings.edu}}</ref> and won his seat again at the [[2014 European Parliament election in France|European elections in 2014]].

On 4 May 2015, Le Pen was suspended from the party after refusing to attend his disciplinary hearing for repeating his description of the [[Nazi gas chambers]] used in [[concentration camp]]s during the [[Holocaust]], as a "detail" of World War II and speaking favorably of Nazi collaborator Marshal [[Philippe Pétain]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/world/europe/far-right-party-in-france-tries-to-push-jean-marie-le-pen-provocative-founder-to-the-margins.html|title=Far-Right Party in France Tries to Push Jean-Marie Le Pen, Provocative Founder, to the Margins|first1=Alissa J.|last1=Rubin|first2=Aurelien|last2=Breeden|date=4 May 2015|work=The New York Times}}</ref> He had originally been fined 183,200 euros for saying in 1987 that "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."<ref name="HaaretzPatriarch">{{cite news |title=Jean-Marie Le Pen to Face Trial for Saying Gas Chambers Are 'A Detail' of History |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2015-07-25/ty-article/le-pen-charged-with-saying-gas-chambers-are-a-detail/0000017f-f979-d2d5-a9ff-f9fdbabb0000 |access-date=2 June 2024 |work=[[Haaretz]] |date=25 July 2015}}</ref> In 1996, he stated 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," and he made similar statements before the [[European Parliament]] in 2008 and 2009.<ref name="HaaretzPatriarch"/>

Le Pen dismissed the hearing as a 'mockery' and an 'ambush' and accused Ms. Le Pen of pulling the strings from afar. 'It's dirty to kill your own daddy, so she didn't kill daddy directly, she did it through her henchman,' Mr. Le Pen told French radio at the time. The elder Le Pen was a persistent problem for his daughter as she tried to smooth over the overt racism and xenophobia of the party's past. The final straw came in April when he rehashed familiar comments about the gas chambers and said France should get along with Russia to save the 'white world'. Ms. Le Pen then openly split with her father, saying he was committing 'political suicide'. But he vowed to 'reconquer' the party he founded in 1972.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/national-front-founder-jean-marie-le-pen-creates-new-party-1.2342458|title=National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen creates new party|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |publisher=|accessdate=24 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.france24.com/en/20150906-france-national-front-founder-jean-marie-le-pen-creates-new-political-party|title=FN founder Le Pen to create new far-right faction – France 24|date=6 September 2015|publisher=|accessdate=24 April 2018}}</ref>

A French court decided in June 2015 to cancel his suspension; although the members of the party were to hold a vote to accept or reject a whole series of measures aiming at changing the [[National Front (France)|National Front]]'s status, including Le Pen's honorary presidency. On 10 July another French court ruled to suspend the vote two days beforehand and urged the party to organize an in-person Congress, as Le Pen sued the National Front again. The party decided to appeal against both of these decisions.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2015/07/08/la-justice-donne-a-nouveau-raison-a-jean-marie-le-pen_4675601_823448.html |title=Jean-Marie Le Pen fait suspendre l'assemblée générale du FN |work=Le Monde |date=8 July 2015 |access-date=21 July 2016}}</ref> The FN then decided, on 29 July, to count the votes on the suppression of Le Pen's Honorary Presidency, which showed that 94% of the members were in favour of this decision.<ref>{{cite news|author=Un mot à ajouter ? |url=http://www.liberation.fr/politiques/2015/07/29/fn-94-des-adherents-approuvent-la-suppression-de-la-presidence-d-honneur_1355925 |title=Vote massif des adhérents FN contre Jean-Marie Le Pen, qui renonce à se présenter en Paca |newspaper=Libération |date=29 July 2015 |access-date=21 July 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.liberation.fr/direct/element/_14247/ |title=29 juillet 2015 à 19:40 |newspaper=Libération |access-date=21 July 2016}}</ref> However, due to the legal challenges to the FN's removal of Le Pen as its honorary president, he continued to officially hold the position.<ref>{{cite magazine | title=Juridiquement, Jean-Marie Le Pen est toujours président d'honneur du FN | url=http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/politique/fn/juridiquement-jean-marie-le-pen-est-toujours-president-d-honneur-du-fn_1873324.html | date=27 January 2017 | magazine=[[L'Express]] | access-date=28 April 2017 | language=fr}}</ref>

In August 2015, Le Pen was expelled from the National Front after a special party congress.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34009901|title=French National Front expels founder Jean-Marie Le Pen|work=BBC News|date=20 August 2015|access-date=28 August 2015}}</ref> He later founded the [[Comités Jeanne]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.europe1.fr/politique/jean-marie-le-pen-lance-des-comites-jeanne-darc-au-secours-2697814|title=Jean-Marie Le Pen lance des comités "Jeanne d'Arc, au secours !"|website=europe1.fr|date=20 March 2016 |access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.valeursactuelles.com/politique/jean-marie-le-pen-cree-les-comites-jeanne-au-secours-pour-peser-sur-le-fn-60287|title=Jean-Marie Le Pen crée les comités "Jeanne, au secours!" pour peser sur le FN|date=21 March 2016|access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref>