Marine Le Pen’s election as leader came after a party congress in Tours, where she secured 67.65% of the vote against Bruno Gollnisch, succeeding her father Jean-Marie Le Pen who had founded and led the National Front since 1972.
This transition allowed her to initiate a “detoxification” strategy, distancing the party from her father’s controversial racist and antisemitic remarks while emphasizing anti-immigration policies, Euroskepticism, and protectionism, which helped rebrand it and fuel the broader wave of conservative populism in Europe.