The Marinisation of France Marine Le Pen and the French National Front
Marcus Stadelmann

Abstract
In 2011, Marine Le Pen became the most powerful female extreme right leader in Europe. She took over as the new leader of the French National Front after her father, the party’s founder Jean Marie Le Pen, stepped down citing age and health reasons. Since then she has transformed the party into a modern day right party shedding a lot of the party’s historical baggage. She has abandoned the party’s anti-Semitism, chauvinism, and revisionist versions of WWII, and is now openly appealing to young and female voters. This article shows how the party is in a good position to become the largest and most powerful party in France by the end of 2014 and how Marine Le Pen has positioned herself to be a strong contender for the 2017 French presidential elections.

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