Le Pen, Jean-Marie

Le Pen, Jean-Marie (zhŏn'-märē` lə pĕn, pŏN), 1928–, French politician. He graduated from law school, was elected (1956) a parliamentary deputy, and criticized President de Gaulle's Algerian policy. Since 1972 he has led the extremely right-wing National Front. Although his party won a number of seats in the national assembly during the late 1980s, the party was unsuccessful in the 1988 elections. Still, his presidential campaign in 1988 was supported by four million voters. His views against immigration and his support for national defense have aroused strong feelings in France. He became a member of the European parliament in 1984. He was stripped of his seat in 2000 as a result of his 1998 conviction for assaulting a rival politician, but it was later restored by the courts pending an appeal, which he lost in 2003. In the first round of the 2002 presidential election Le Pen edged out Premier Lionel Jospin to finish second behind President Jacques Chirac, but in the subsequent runoff Le Pen garnered only 18% of the vote. Le Pen placed fourth in the 2007 presidential election.

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Le Pen, Jean-Marie

(born June 20, 1928, La Trinité, France) French nationalist politician. He was elected in 1956 to the National Assembly as its youngest member. Le Pen helped to found the National Front in 1972, becoming the party's leader later that year. The party emphasized the threat to France posed by immigration, particularly of Arabs from France's former North African colonies. The party also opposed European integration, favoured the reintroduction of capital punishment, and sought prohibitions on the building of additional mosques in France. Le Pen ran several times for the presidency; though he captured less than 1% of the vote in 1974, in 1988 and 1995 he won some 15%. In the presidential election of 2002 Le Pen finished second in the first round of voting, winning 18%, though he was easily defeated in the second round by Jacques Chirac. In the 2007 election he failed to reach the second round. Le Pen was widely regarded as the leader of French neofascism, and his National Front party constituted the main right-wing opposition to the country's mainstream conservative parties from the 1970s through the early 21st century.