Ever true to his origins, Jean-Marie Le Pen liked to say that his surname meant ‘boss’ in Breton. Yet it is ironic to hear his enemies and detractors now calling him that. An intelligent man and a cunning politician, he was also ironic, and he often used irony as a weapon in verbal confrontations.
His career was as difficult as it was formidable: from his humble beginnings to his election as MP when he was just 27 years old; from his experience as a volunteer fighter to the founding of the Front National (FN); from 1972 onwards until he reached the second round of the presidential elections, 30 years later, to general astonishment. He inspired passion and hatred, and he suffered political, personal, and family attacks; but he never gave up.
The press was eager to see his failures, but Le Pen was able to combine erudition with truculence into a combative eloquence. Unsurprisingly, he became a media phenomenon and an important political figure in France and Europe. He was an inspiration for many European movements and parties. It is therefore easy to understand why a man who had lived through war and political struggle with the greatest of his time would regard today’s politicians in the way that a giant would view a bunch of dwarfs.
In 1997, in Libération, Jean Baudrillard wrote that “The only political discourse in France today is that of Le Pen. All the others are moral and pedagogical, the rhetoric of teachers and lecturers, managers and programmers.” He made mistakes and excesses, he was uncompromising, provocative and aggressive, but he always defended his France, his people, and his civilization. He was eternal in resistance.
There is an iconic poster from the 1990s, made by the FN Youth, showing…