The National Rally (French: Rassemblement national, pronounced [ʁasɑ̃bləmɑ̃ nasjɔnal]; RN), until June 2018 known as the National Front (French: Front national, pronounced [fʁɔ̃ nasjɔnal]; FN), is a far-right political party in France. Since its inception, it has primarily been an anti-immigration party, advocating significant cuts to legal immigration and protection of French identity, and stricter control of illegal immigration. The National Rally has opposed the European Union (EU) and its predecessor organisations since its foundation in 1972. It also supports French economic interventionism, protectionism, as well as a zero tolerance approach towards law and order.
The party was founded on 5 October 1972 to unify a variety of French nationalist movements of the time. Its political views are nationalist and anti-globalist. Jean-Marie Le Pen founded the party and was its leader until his resignation in 2011. While the party struggled as a marginal force for its first ten years, since 1984 it has been a major force of French nationalism. It has put forward a presidential candidate at every presidential election but one since 1974. In 2002, Jean-Marie came second in the first round, but finished a distant second in the runoff to Jacques Chirac. His daughter Marine Le Pen was elected to succeed him as party leader in 2012. In April 2017, she temporarily stepped down in order to concentrate on her presidential candidacy.
While her father was nicknamed the "Devil of the Republic" by mainstream media and sparked outrage for hate speech, including Holocaust denial and Islamophobia, Marine Le Pen pursued a policy of "de-demonisation" of the party by softening its image. She endeavoured to extract it from its far-right cultural roots, and to normalise it by giving it a culture of government, and censuring controversial members like her father, who was suspended, and then expelled from the party in 2015. Following her election as the leader of the party in 2011, the popularity of the FN grew. By 2015, the FN had established itself as a major political party in France.
At the party congress on 11 March 2018, Marine Le Pen proposed renaming the party to Rassemblement national (National Rally), and on 1 June 2018, the renaming of the party was confirmed, following an 80.81% approval ballot of party members. Formerly strongly Eurosceptic, the new National Rally changed policies in 2019, deciding to campaign for a reform of the EU rather than leaving it and to keep the Euro as the main currency of France (together with the Pacific Franc for some collectivities). In 2021, Le Pen announced that she wanted to remain in the Schengen area, citing "an attachment to the European spirit", but to reserve free movement to nationals of an EEA country, excluding residents and visitors of another Schengen country.
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