Little-known facts about potential French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen

(Baonghean.vn) - Marine Le Pen - leader of France's far-right National Front party - is one of the leading candidates in the race to the Élysée Palace.

Born in 1968, Ms. Le Pen is the youngest of three sisters. When she was only 8 years old, Marine Le Pen survived a bombing of her family by enemies of Mr. Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Ms. Marine Le Pen - French presidential candidate.

"Heir" of the National Front Party

Marine Le Pen took over as leader of the National Front (FN) party from her father and party founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who stepped down five years ago.

But then Mr. Jean-Marie Le Pen was expelled from the party by his own daughter in 2015 for saying that the Nazi gas chambers were nothing more than “a historical detail” while the FN's foundation was xenophobia and Holocaust-denial.

In November 2016, a French court upheld the FN’s decision but ruled that Jean-Marie could remain honorary president of the party. He was also fined 30,000 euros for his comments.

Storms have made a strong, determined woman

Ms. Le Pen and her father, National Front party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen. Photo: AP.

The shock of Ms Le Pen’s childhood was probably when her mother, Pierrette Lalanne, publicly abandoned the family in the early 1980s and later posed nude for Playboy magazine. Her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was also embarrassed by this.

Marine Le Pen received a master's degree in criminal law from the University of Paris in 1992 and began her career as a public defender. Three years later, Le Pen married fellow party member Franck Chauffroy, but they later divorced. The couple have three children together: Jehanne, 17, and twins Louis and Mathilde, 15.

The "scandalous" handshake with Mr. Putin

Ms Le Pen met Mr Putin during a visit to Russia in 2016.

Ms Le Pen had been to Russia at the invitation of a lawmaker, but later images of her shaking hands with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin raised concerns in Europe about Moscow's support for the far right. President Putin assured Ms Le Pen that he had no intention of interfering in the French election.

However, on April 1, Mediapart, a Paris-based investigative news agency, cited leaked documents from FN showing that since June 2016, Ms. Le Pen and the party's leaders had requested a loan of more than 3 million euros from Strategy Bank at an interest rate of 6% per year to finance election activities.

The news comes after the US Senate warned that Russia was actively interfering in the French election so that Moscow’s “favorite” candidate would take power. Russia was also previously suspected of interfering in the US election to help Donald Trump win.

Is France ready for a female president?

The French presidential election is currently very unpredictable. Photo: AP

Since the FN party unexpectedly rose to the top of opinion polls late last year, Ms Le Pen has been expected to become France's first far-right president.

The two-horse race between the two candidates who made it to the second round of the French presidential election, Mr. Emmanuel Macron and Ms. Marine Le Pen, was very tense on April 26, related to the fate of the Whirlpool electronics factory, located in the city of Amiens, in the northwestern region of France.

The press also had great difficulty reflecting the contrasting nature of the two meetings with voters by Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Macron.

According to the French press, Ms. Le Pen's "ambush" style, although not showing the style of a future president, is extremely effective in attracting working-class voters.

Mr. Macron's campaign team has been somewhat downplaying things in recent days, while Mr. Macron has been criticized for his "complacent" attitude during the celebration party after his victory in the first round.

The unexpected duel on April 26 showed that the second round of the two-horse race to the Elysée Palace is taking place very fiercely when all strategies can be used to win voters' votes./.

But if she does not win the election, at least with the current situation, this 49-year-old female politician is sure to become the leader of a formidable opposition party, and that gives her quite a lot of influence in steering the French ship to the left, sometimes to the right.

Peace

(Synthetic)