Front National

   , FN

   Extreme right-wing and xenophobic political party, founded by Jean Marie Le Pen in 1972. The party is strongly Eurosceptic, anti-immigration, and traditionalist; party members, including Le Pen, have been prosecuted for racist remarks, negationism, and the downplaying of war-crimes.

   The Front National has been a significant force in French politics since the 1980's, particularly where they have been aided by proportional representation. They won 10 seats at the European Parliament in 1984, and then 35 seats in the French general election of 1986, after François Mitterrand introduced a degree of proportional representation into the voting system. PR was quickly dropped again after this, and the FN has never since had more than a single Député. However, in European elections, where PR has remained, the FN has continued to pick up seats, most recently with 7 in the 2004 election.

   In 1995, the Front National won municipal elections in three towns in the south of France, Orange, Vitrolles and Marignane, in "triangular" second rounds for which neither the socialists (PS) nor the main conservative party would withdraw their candidates.

   Perhaps the FN's most visible success was that of its leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the 2002 Presidential election, when he obtained second place in the first round, thus securing a place in the runoff. It is interesting to note that in this second round, which was a massive victory for Jacques Chirac, le Pen took less than 1% more of the vote than in the first round.

   The high profile of the FN in French politics surprises many foreign observers, but it is not really a surprise in a country with a fragmented party political structure. France's biggest mainstream political parties have a tradition of instrumentalising whatever means possible in order to damage their opponents, and for a long time French left-wing parties have sought to portray the Front National as the natural ally of other conservative parties. Yet by blurring the distinction between this far right party other mainstream conservative parties, they paradoxically helped to legitimise the FN. Mitterrand's introduction of PR into the voting system for general elections in 1984, which propelled the FN into the limelight, was actually intended to stop the mainstream conservative parties from winning. The policy backfired, since the conservatives won anyway, and the FN obtained its own "group" in the French parliament.

   Currently (2008) the FN is in decline. The party has lost voters to other right-wing parties, and has had to sell off its flagship headquarters building in Neuilly-sur-Seine, in order to pay its debts. See Political Parties in France