I think we are equal, but different." "We believe that French people should be prioritised for social housing and employment opportunities, if they have an equal competence.". "It's a debate that stirs up emotions, of course it is.

This is all so smoothly expressed, that it takes a moment for the impact of it to hit home: that the law, under the Front National, would mean one thing for those descended from immigrants and another thing entirely for what Maréchal-Le Pen views as the "true" French race.

"No, not at all," she replies.

She is not unlikable.

Maréchal-Le Pen's aunt, Marine, has been instrumental in dragging the image of the Front National into the modern era, moving away from racist rhetoric, reaffirming secularism and insisting that France should stand on its own two feet and leave the euro.

"When you're the single French person in the middle of 10 Tunisians, the majority will impose their way of life on the minority.". Since April 2011, women have been banned from wearing the burqa or the niqab in public. The only thing I'd say is that I know, from people who've told me firsthand, that sadly mixed marriages can be a bit conflicted on everyday issues.

It seems incredible that she has only ever had one piece of negative mail.

But the tone of her last answer suggests a more disturbing set of beliefs at play beneath the surface: a whiff of something rotten at the core of her politics and a sense that the world is made up of people who can be divided easily into "us" or "them". ", France has a long history with the far right which has traditionally been allied with the Catholic church (even the former president François Mitterrand was, as a young man, involved in conservative nationalist movements) and Marine Le Pen's attempts to decontaminate the image of the FN have not been without success. Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Fiction & Literature.

There's a pressure within the community imposed by others. Publisher: TREDITION CLASSICS. 1972 Le Pen co-founds the Front National and presides over it for nearly 40 years. I am married to a man whose father came to the UK from Sudan, I say.

But I believe that it is a minor detail in the history of the second world war.". Book In this context, Maréchal-Le Pen's comments are not especially controversial. Given this, I wonder what her position is on marriages between people from different backgrounds? France has been living with the shame of the Nazi collaboration under the Vichy regime, after which the far right was marginalised from what are considered to be acceptable political values in France.

Blonde, slim and striking, Maréchal-Le Pen talks in a fluent and engaging manner.

"For me, marriage is a very personal choice.

54.8k Followers, 78 Following, 382 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Marion Maréchal (@marionmarechal_) All rights reserved. 1


"I'm not against it," she replies.

1986 Joins the Front National aged 18 and by 2000 is elected on to the party's executive committee.

And yet however much she might try and distance herself from it, the Front National's grubby history casts a long shadow. Hence the paradox: they pretend the FN is ideologically unfrequentable, yet they steal the party's discourse and platforms to get elected. She lists them, one by one, in rapid-fire – at one point, she is speaking so quickly that her adviser, Arnaud, has to remind her to slow down as French is not my first language.

", 2012 Runs as a candidate in the French presidential election, finishing third behind François Hollande and incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy. "People have said I'm a puppet, an instrument of my grandfather but I think they quickly realised that I'm my own person, that I have autonomy in my actions.
She points out that people from Martinique, for example, would not be subject to the proposed nationality restrictions because the Caribbean island is an officially designated region of France and goes on to name a number of Front National members from ethnic minority backgrounds, including Charlotte Soula, the office manager of Marine Le Pen who is of Algerian origin (and a convert from Islam to Catholicism). publications in

"We are all able to have our private lives. He is responsible for Le Pen's communication strategy and is renowned for the infamous soundbite: "I'm socially left, economically right, and more than anything, nationally French.". "The racism argument is a very violent one but it works less and less," says Maréchal-Le Pen. Photograph: Jacques Pavlovsky/Sygma/Corbis.

2011 Resigns as party leader of the Front National. I want to put men and women on an equal footing. We have a colossal deficit. She is vehemently anti-EU – a position that has found favour with republican French voters who believe the integrity of their nation is endangered by federal government.

She says she first developed an interest in politics at the age of 16 and supported Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential elections. I can see why Maréchal-Le Pen is electable. Her grandfather, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founded the political party which she now represents, a party which is anti-Europe, anti-globalisation and which believes in stringent immigration controls and national protectionism.

But she soon became disenchanted by him and, at the age of 19, started to help out with campaigning for the Front National and volunteered for the youth wing of the party.

But there are those who question her own commitment, believing that she is little more than her grandfather's mouthpiece. In June, Maréchal-Le Pen became the youngest MP in modern French history, at the age of 22, after topping the poll in her constituency of Carpentras in the south-eastern region of the Vaucluse, with 49.09% of the vote. 1993 Marries Yann Le Pen, the second daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen.

It's particularly an issue among Muslim communities. Sun 28 Oct 2012 00.10 BST I'm not obsessed with the rights of women, it can be a bit excessive.

Weight: 0.27 lbs. 1996 While in Munich, Le Pen reiterates the 1987 remark, describing the concentration camps as a "detail" in second world war history. In France, where the divorce of church from state underpinned the French revolution, secularisation is viewed as a basic tenet of the country's progressive thought.

Marine Le Pen, the youngest of his three daughters, who succeeded him as party leader last year, lives above a former stable in the extensive grounds. 1995 Given an eight-month prison sentence and a fine of 5,000 francs for "assault and battery and conspiracy", after violence broke out between Front National militants and students in Gascony in March. But then she goes even further, outlining a plan to strip second-generation immigrants of citizenship if they commit a crime or refuse to learn French.

Perhaps Maréchal-Le Pen is right that immigration needs to be discussed and that MPs are wary of doing so in case they are accused of racism. My grandfather always said: 'Don't be angry at the immigrants, be angry at the political class that created this situation.' "I think so," she says. 2007: Joins the Front National at the age of 18.

2005 Fined €10,000 by a Paris court for "inciting racial hatred" in anti-Islamic comments he made in an interview with Le Monde.

"The owner was very kind and he took me around and said: 'Tonight we're welcoming Mademoiselle Maréchal-Le Pen,' and everyone clapped," she says hurriedly.

I don't agree with everything he says, but I agree with the essential spirit and of that he's proud. "Sarkozy won in 2007 by shifting to the right and stealing FN votes," explains Matthew Fraser. Maréchal-Le Pen looks embarrassed. ", She insists that she has only ever encountered "a positive reaction" on the street.

But we don't have the means. "The explanation is largely historical.

But it has not all been plain sailing: although her niece was elected to parliament in June, Marine Le Pen lost her bid to win a seat by 118 votes. We are in debt. One of the first times that Marion Maréchal-Le Pen took her seat in the Assemblée Nationale, the lower house of the French parliament, she was stopped by a male politician. The problem, as she sees it, is that past government policies have failed, causing resentment among those who believe their country is being overrun by "outsiders".

), Terre en vue : feuilles de route des jeunes du Front national, ( La Papaut? I've nothing against people who come to France in search of a better life.

© 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. This ultimately led to him losing his seat in the European parliament in 2003, although he was re-elected the following year. "Yes, if I can find a suitable sperm donor.". She combined standing as an MP with her postgraduate studies in public law and is still a student at Panthéon-Assas University, a traditionally rightwing institution. Later pardoned. 2008 Marries Cécile Houphouët-Boigny, the great-niece of the first president of Ivory Coast, Félix Houphouët-Boigny. (C)chal (French) Paperback Book Free Shipping!

Marion lives with her mother, Yann, Jean-Marie's middle daughter, on the second floor of the main house.

I don't judge, but it can cause conflict.". And she claims that the Front National has taken a truly "feminist" stance on maternity leave by devising a policy that would give stay-at-home parents a salary. "She speaks rather well," says the French cultural commentator Agnès Poirier, "but a little like a law student who has memorised her dissertation.". I have empathy, I am humane, I understand human misery. ", 2002 Organises Jean-Marie Le Pen's presidential campaign. "The most aggressive people are other MPs," she says. 2000 Suspended from the European parliament following conviction for the physical assault of Socialist candidate Annette Peulvast-Bergeal during the 1997 general election. "He might refuse to shake my hand, but his electors will gladly do so," is her response.

2002 Achieves second place in the first round of voting in the French presidential election, winning 16.9% of the vote. We are not monsters.

Arnaud, her adviser, helpfully interrupts at this point to remind her that she recently went to a fashionable Parisian restaurant and was given a spontaneous round of applause by the diners.

30 works in 2012: Says: "Contrary to what everyone thinks, in my family we didn't talk about politics at home and we're free to make our own choices.". That causes problems.

"He looked at me and said: 'And whose secretary are you?'" There are those who question whether she genuinely believes the policies she's pitching to the wider public. Spoken like a true politician. Immigration, she concedes, "has also been good" for France. 1991 Graduates with a master of laws and a master of advanced studies in criminal law from Pantheon-Assas University in Paris, France's leading law school.