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Marine Le Pen
The rebrander
Whisper it: Marine Le Pen could well be the next French president. All the far-right leader has to do is fly under the radar for the next few years, keep her hands clean while President Emmanuel Macron pushes through his unpopular reforms, and continue to rebrand herself and her party all the way into the Elysée.
Previously kept at bay by the “front républicain” — an informal pact that saw French voters on the center left and right come together to keep those on the fringes out of office — Le Pen’s National Rally party is raking in ever-more ballots with every election. In recent polling, 42 percent of respondents said they had already voted for a National Rally list or candidate, up from 30 percent in 2017. And in ominous news for the European Union, the latest French polling data for the European Parliament election puts her party in first place, well ahead of Macron’s Renaissance. While National Rally is no longer seeking Frexit, the big fear in Brussels is that Le Pen will undermine the bloc’s support for Ukraine, given her long-standing links with Russia. Rumor has it French banks are now stress-testing not only for another financial crisis, but for a President Le Pen too.
So how has Le Pen managed to rebrand herself as a credible occupant of a presidential palace? She has certainly benefited from Macron’s dipping popularity — as the president faced six months of protests, strikes and general chaos, Le Pen sat in the National Assembly and quietly worked on building up her credibility, including by snatching key posts in the chamber. Le Pen has also benefited from the rise on her rightward flank of Eric Zemmour, the inflammatory far-right hard-liner who has been convicted several times for inciting hate speech, and who makes Le Pen seem mild by comparison. Le Pen, meanwhile, is reaching out to France’s Jewish community, and continues to burnish a folksy “cat mother” image — she now has a “cat breeding diploma.” Yes, really.
Check out the full POLITICO 28: Class of 2024, and read the Letter from the Editors for an explanation of the thinking behind the ranking.