The party was founded in 1972 by the Ordre Nouveau to be the legitimate political vehicle for the far-right movement.[17]Jean-Marie Le Pen was its founder and leader until his resignation in 2011. While its influence was marginal until 1984, the party's role as a nationalist electoral force has grown considerably.[18] It has put forward a candidate at every presidential election but one since 1974. In the 2002 presidential election, Jean-Marie Le Pen advanced to the second round but finished a distant second in the runoff to Jacques Chirac.[19] His daughter Marine Le Pen was elected to succeed him as party leader in 2012. Jordan Bardella assumed the leadership in 2022.[20]
The party has seen an increase in its popularity and acceptance in French society in recent years. It has been accused of promoting xenophobia and antisemitism.[21] 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", trying to frame the party as being neither right nor left.[22] She endeavoured to extract it from its far-right roots, as well as censuring controversial members like her father, who was suspended and then expelled from the party in 2015.[23] Following her election as the leader of the party in 2011, the popularity of the FN grew.[24] By 2015, the FN had established itself as a major political party in France.[25][26] Sources traditionally label the party as far-right.[8] However, some media outlets have started to refer to the party as "right-wing populist" or "nationalist right" instead, arguing that it has substantially moderated from its years under Jean-Marie Le Pen.[27]
At the FN congress of 2018, Marine Le Pen proposed renaming the party Rassemblement National (National Rally),[28] and this was confirmed by a ballot of party members.[29] Formerly strongly Eurosceptic, the 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 CFP franc for some collectivities).[30] In 2021, Le Pen announced that she wanted to remain in the Schengen Area, but to reserve free movement to nationals of a European Economic Area country, excluding residents of and visitors from another Schengen country.[31][32]
Le Pen reached the second round of the 2017 presidential election, receiving 33.9% of the votes in the run-off and losing to Emmanuel Macron. Again in the 2022 election, she lost to Macron in the run-off, receiving 41.45% of the votes. In the 2022 parliamentary elections, the National Rally achieved a significant increase in the number of its MPs in the National Assembly, from 7 to 89 seats. In June 2024, the party won the European Parliament elections in a landslide with 31.4% of the votes. This caused Macron to announce a snap election. Later that month, an RN-led right-wing coalition topped the first round of the snap French legislative election with a record 33.2% of the votes. On 7 July, the RN also won the popular vote (37.06%) in the second round of the snap election, but only won the third highest number of seats.[33]
On 31 March 2025, 25 National Rally members (including Le Pen, former MEPs, and their assistants) were convicted of embezzlement for using European Parliament funds to fund National Rally staff. The sentences for several MEPs, including Le Pen, included bans on running for political office.[34][35][36]
Jens Rydgren (2008). "France: The Front National, Ethnonationalism and Populism". Twenty-First Century Populism. Link.springer.com. pp. 166–180. doi:10.1057/9780230592100_11. ISBN978-1-349-28476-4.
Hobolt, Sara; De Vries, Catherine (16 June 2020). Political Entrepreneurs: The Rise of Challenger Parties in Europe. Princeton University Press. ISBN978-0691194752.
Joly, Bertrand (2008). Nationalistes et Conservateurs en France, 1885–1902. Les Indes Savantes.
Kitschelt, Herbert; McGann, Anthony (1995). The radical right in Western Europe: a comparative analysis. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. pp. 91–120. ISBN0472106635.
McGann, Anthony; Kitschelt, Herbert (1997). The Radical Right in Western Europe A Comparative Analysis. University of Michigan Press. ISBN9780472084418.
Mayer, Nonna (January 2013). "From Jean-Marie to Marine Le Pen: Electoral Change on the Far Right". Parliamentary Affairs. 66 (1): 160–178. doi:10.1093/pa/gss071.
Messina, Anthony (2015). "The political and policy impacts of extreme right parties in time and context". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 38 (8): 1355–1361. doi:10.1080/01419870.2015.1016071. S2CID143522149.
Simmons, Harvey G. (1996). The French National Front: The Extremist Challenge To Democracy. Westview Press. ISBN978-0813389790.
Williams, Michelle Hale (January 2011). "A new era for French far right politics? Comparing the FN under two Le Pens and The Impact of Radical Right-Wing Parties in West European Democracies". Análise Social. 201 (1): 679–695.
^Lebourg, Nicolas; Preda, Jonathan (15 May 2013). "Ordre Nouveau, fin des illusions droitières et matrice activiste du premier Front national" [New Order, end of illusions and the activist matrix of the first National Front]. Studia Historica. Historia Contemporánea. 30: 205–230. Sa "mémoire" se structure autour de deux motifs: la violence de masse, et l'intégration de l'extrême droite au jeu politique avec la création par Ordre Nouveau du Front National en 1972.