“An additional step in our accession to responsibilities is now accomplished. A new era is opening for us,” said Jordan Bardella on June 23, 2022. A few days after the second round of the legislative elections, the interim president of the National Rally is aware that his party has changed status. With 89 deputies elected to the National Assembly thanks to the end of the “republican front”, the far-right party founded in 1972 by Jean-Marie Le Pen with former French Waffen-SS is now preparing to play a leading role in French political life.
Therefore, to the demonization undertaken since 2011 is added the “tie strategy”. The elected representatives of the National Rally (RN) must blend into the decor of the Palais Bourbon, adopt its codes, both in parliamentary practices and in clothing practices.
“The goal is to resemble the elected officials of other parties, not to make waves, not to be in excess, all to attenuate the radical tone of the RN’s speech. It is a way of giving a smooth and respectable image of the RN, which also functions as a mirror of what La France insoumise does”, analyzes Jean-Yves Camus, president of the Observatory of political radicalities of the Jean Jaurès Foundation and specialist in the extreme right.
Other episodes of the series
Since Jean-Marie Le Pen entrusted the keys of his party to his daughter Marine in 2011, the National Front has continued to gain influence in French political life as it demonized itself. Having become the National Rally, now led by Jordan Bardella, the far-right party has managed in around fifteen years to rise to the rank of big favorite in the 2027 presidential election. A look back at this development in three episodes.
Because on the other side of the hemicycle, rebellious deputies have the reputation of practicing the strategy of “sound and fury”. Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen are betting that their party must do the opposite: oppose the government in substance, but never be excessive in form.
“This is a new step for Marine Le Pen, who finds an unexpected platform in the National Assembly. For her, it is now a question of making her group the showcase of a party which wants to show that it can govern while the French are not convinced of it. And in doing so, persuade voters that it does not represent a danger for democracy”, adds Jean-Yves Camus.
The RN can count, during the installation of the new legislature, on June 29, 2022, on the help of the presidential majority which, thanks to its votes, allows deputies Sébastien Chenu and Hélène Laporte to obtain two vice-presidencies of the National Assembly.
Influence of the far right in political life
When the highly contested pension reform was debated during the first months of 2023, the deputies of the National Rally took care to criticize it in the media, without however taking part in the demonstrations and without fiercely opposing it at the Palais Bourbon. However, on March 20, 2023, they voted for the motion of censure against the Borne government – it would avoid being overthrown by nine votes.
Then, once the text was passed thanks to article 49.3 of the Constitution, and while wild demonstrations began in the streets, the National Rally sided with the government to advocate order. A few weeks later, when urban riots occurred after the death of Nahel in Nanterre on June 27, 2023, the same posture of authority was adopted again.
This episode also reveals the ever-growing influence of the RN on French political life, with a growing proximity between its proposals and those of the Les Républicains party. In order to stand out from the government and demonstrate its firmness in the face of the rioters, the tenors of the classic right, from Laurent Wauquiez to Éric Ciotti, are holding almost word for word the same speech as the far right: questioning the “ethnic origins” of these French people of immigrant origin, lowering the criminal age to 16 years and establishing minimum prison sentences for attackers of police officers, elected officials and representatives of the State, questioning of land law and loss of nationality for convicted dual nationals.
Also readImmigration law: the day Emmanuel Macron offered a political victory to the far right
A few months later, the influence of the RN will be verified again with the vote on the Immigration law, on December 19, 2023, by the presidential majority. “We can rejoice in an ideological advance, an even ideological victory for the National Rally, since national priority is now enshrined in this law, that is to say the advantage given to the French over foreigners present on our territory in access to a certain number of social benefits,” Marine Le Pen welcomed that day.
For Jean-Yves Camus, “this law does not take up the entirety or even the majority of Marine Le Pen’s presidential program, but there are borrowings and, above all, it is a victory for the frontist background noise”. “It would not have been voted on without the constant work that this party has done for half a century on the idea of national preference and on the idea that immigration is a burden, a cost, a factor in crime,” he adds.
Outside the National Assembly, a geopolitical event allows the National Rally to put the final touch on its de-demonization strategy: the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
While Jean-Luc Mélenchon and La France insoumise (LFI) search for words, failing to qualify Hamas as a terrorist group, Marine Le Pen and the RN provide unfailing support to Israel. The leader of the far-right party immediately participated, on November 12, 2023, in the march against anti-Semitism in Paris, taking a further step towards its presidentialization.
No longer a danger for democracy
Five and a half years after the white march in tribute to Mireille Knoll from which Marine Le Pen had to be exfiltrated, the RN can now present itself as a party defending the Jews. He was even dubbed in June 2024 by the historian Serge Klarsfeld, who affirmed that he would choose the RN rather than LFI if he had to choose between the two parties. And in March 2025, Jordan Bardella and Marion Maréchal are invited to Israel to participate in an international conference on the fight against anti-Semitism.
Has the far-right party really changed? The veneer of demonization crumbles somewhat when Jordan Bardella assures that Jean-Marie Le Pen was not anti-Semitic, that anti-Semitic RN candidates are regularly nominated in national and local elections, and that a study by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) reports a much higher rate of anti-Semitic sympathizers in the RN than in other parties.
In the meantime, Marine Le Pen’s strategy is working. The annual barometer carried out for almost forty years by Verian for Le Monde and franceinfo on the image of the National Rally shows for the first time, in December 2023, that a majority of French people believe that the RN does not represent a danger for democracy and that it has the capacity to participate in a government.
Also readBehind the veneer of de-demonization, anti-Semitism still present at the National Rally
“A form of certainty is created over the course of the presidential elections and poses us as a credible alternation, and this observation is disseminated by our adversaries. Which means that internationally, in economic circles, in the senior civil service, the idea is taking hold that we are going to come to power and that they must consider this hypothesis”, comments Marine Le Pen, interviewed by Le Monde.
We don’t have to wait long for the RN’s electoral results to confirm this idea. In the European elections in June 2024, the list led by Jordan Bardella comes well ahead with 31.37% of the votes, far ahead of Renaissance and its allies (14.60%) and the Place publique-Socialist Party list (13.83%).
Emmanuel Macron immediately chose to dissolve the National Assembly, causing early legislative elections. The National Rally once again came out on top on the evening of the first round with 33.42% of the votes, but found itself blocked from entering Matignon by the left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front in the second round.
“Normalization is double-edged”
Marine Le Pen can, however, have a smile: with 126 deputies, she has the largest group in a National Assembly without a majority; and the vote exploded the Les Républicains party, its boss Éric Ciotti opting for an alliance with the RN without having the support of the other party leaders.
“The RN shows that it is really close to power and finds itself in a situation where it can decide the life or death of governments, whether with Michel Barnier or François Bayrou who are both seeking to obtain its favors,” relates Jean-Yves Camus.
The path to the Élysée then seems clear, but justice thwarts Marine Le Pen’s plans for 2027. The RN candidate was sentenced in March 2025 at first instance in the case of the parliamentary assistants of the National Front to the European Parliament to four years in prison, including two years subject to change, a fine of 100,000 euros and a sentence of five years of ineligibility with provisional execution.
Also readCriticizing the ineligibility of Marine Le Pen, “an indicator of the loss of basic democratic values”
She was sentenced again in July 2026 on appeal, this time to three years in prison, of which one year was subject to change, a fine of 100,000 euros and a sentence of 45 months of ineligibility, 30 of which were suspended. Although found guilty twice, Marine Le Pen, who appealed to the Court of Cassation, will be able to run in the presidential election.
However, during the first judgment as during the second, the National Rally chose to attack justice, and therefore the rule of law. In 2025, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella first criticized a “political decision”, a “democratic denial” or even “the tyranny of judges”. And in 2026, Marine Le Pen seemed to defy justice, betting that the Court of Cassation will not dare to render its decision before the presidential election of 2027.
A strategy which does not quite fit with the demonization, normalization and presidentialization of the party of the last fifteen years, but which recalls its anti-system discourse. “Normalization is a double-edged sword: there comes a time when you are so normalized that you lose your appeal. You must still be careful to keep the first base of your voters. It’s a balancing act,” underlines Jean-Yves Camus.
