Marine Le Pen

Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1968, Marine Le Pen is the youngest daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front in 1972. She joined the party in 1986 and worked her way through regional councils and the European Parliament before winning its leadership in 2011 with 67.6% of the vote, then setting out to soften its image - expelling members for racism and antisemitism, eventually expelling her own father in 2015 after fresh controversial statements. She ran for president in 2012 and finished third with 17.9%; in 2017 she took 21.3% in the first round and lost the runoff to Macron with 33.9%; in 2022 she pulled 23.2% in round one and 41.5% in the final against Macron again. She's held a National Assembly seat since 2017 and leads the renamed National Rally's parliamentary group. On 31 March 2025, she was convicted with eight other MEPs of embezzling over €4 million in European Parliament funds to pay National Front staff: four years in prison, a €100,000 fine, and a five-year ban from running for office.