Portal:France/Featured article/2012/02

The National Front (French: Front national, FN) is a far-right and nationalist political party in France. The party was founded in 1972, seeking to unify a variety of French far-right currents of the time. Jean-Marie Le Pen was the party's first leader and the undisputed centre of the party from its start until his resignation in 2011. While the party struggled as a marginal force for its first ten years, since 1984 it has been the unrivalled major force of the French far-right. The FN has established itself as the third largest political force in France, after the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the Socialist Party (PS). The 2002 presidential election was the first ever in France to include a far-right candidate in the run-off, as Le Pen beat the socialist candidate in the first round. In the run-off, Le Pen nevertheless finished a distant second to Jacques Chirac. Due to the French electoral system, the party's representation in public office has been limited, despite its electoral success. The current leader of the party is Marine Le Pen, who took over from her father in 2011.

The party's political profile is based on French nationalism. Its current policies include economic protectionism, a zero tolerance approach to law and order issues, and opposition to immigration. Since the 1990s, its stance on the European Union has grown increasingly eurosceptic. The party's opposition to immigration is particularly focused on non-European immigration, and includes support for deporting illegal, criminal, and unemployed immigrants; its policy is nevertheless more moderate today than it was at its most radical point in the 1990s. Some party officials have historically been subject to controversy for occasionally promoting historical revisionism, specifically related to the Second World War. However, the party's current leader, Marine Le Pen, has actively distanced herself from this.