The China Mail - Key dates in the rise of the French far right

The party was later renamed the National Rally (RN) under the leadership of his daughter Marine Le Pen.

- 1972: birth of the National Front -

Jean-Marie Le Pen, a former paratrooper who served in Indochina and Algeria, becomes France's youngest MP ever when he is elected to parliament in 1956.

In 1972, he and other far-right figures found the National Front (FN) to capitalise on nostalgia for France's colonial past and its collaborationist World War II leader Philippe Petain.

In 1974, Le Pen makes the first of six bids for president, winning just 0.74 percent of the vote.

- 1983-1995: first victories -

In the 1980s, the FN chalks up several firsts, despite Le Pen describing the Nazi gas chambers as a "detail" of history, earning him one of several convictions for anti-Semitism.

In 1984, Le Pen is elected to the European Parliament and two years later makes a thunderous entry to the National Assembly, winning 35 seats. In 1995 the party wins control of three towns in its southeastern heartland.

- 2002: presidential 'earthquake' -

Le Pen sends tremors through the French establishment in the 2002 presidential election, when he secures the coveted second spot in a run-off with Jacques Chirac.

Voters from across the spectrum band together behind the centre-right Chirac but Le Pen still pockets over four million votes in the second round.

- 2011: Rise of Marine Le Pen -

In 2011, Le Pen hands the reins of the party to his youngest daughter, Marine, who embarks on a mission to detoxify the FN brand and rid it of its overtly racist image.

This culminates in her sensational expulsion of her father from the party for anti-Semitism.

In 2012, she finishes third in the presidential election. But two years later the FN causes a shock by coming first in France's vote for European Parliament seats.

Marine Le Pen goes on to make it to the second round of the 2017 presidential election against centrist upstart Emmanuel Macron. She is ultimately punished by voters for threatening to take France out of the eurozone, finishing on 34 percent to Macron's 66 percent.

A year later, as part of her continued effort to modernise the party's image, Le Pen changes its name to the National Rally.

- 2022: Biggest right-wing party -

Marine Le Pen qualifies for the second round of the 2022 presidential election in a rematch with Macron but loses again in the run-off, this time with an improved 41.5 percent of the vote.

In parliamentary elections a month later, the RN scoops 89 seats -- a record for the party, up from just eight five years previously.

The RN becomes the second-biggest opposition party in parliament and the biggest on the right, further normalising its presence in the political landscape.

- 2022: Bardella mania -

A fresh-faced former party spokesman, Jordan Bardella, is elected leader of the RN in November 2022 at the age of 27, the first time the party has been led by someone outside of the Le Pen dynasty.

Bardella, who grew up in a high-rise housing estate near Paris, leads the party to its first close-run win over Macron's party in the 2019 European elections, taking 23.34 percent of the vote.

- 2024: Eyeing power -

Five years later, Bardella chalks up another win for the RN in the elections for the European Parliament, trouncing Macron's alliance with 31.36 percent of the vote.

The results prompt Macron to call early legislative elections in a bid to catch his opponents off-guard and try to regain control of parliament -- but the gamble appears to backfire.

The RN leads the first round of the high-stakes election on June 30 with 29 percent of the vote.

Bardella hails a "clear verdict" from the French people but in the second round no political group wields an outright majority.

Q.Moore--ThChM