On the brink of power: how France’s National Rally reinvented itself

Opponents say party is ‘political heir’ of Vichy regime, which collaborated with Nazis, amid efforts to halt its rise

By Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Jun 25, 2024

Political opponents of Marine Le Pen’s poll-leading National Rally are seizing on the far-right party’s history to try to mobilise voters against it in the run-up to France’s snap election.

Leftwing and centrist politicians have sought to remind voters that when Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founded the party – originally named Front National – in 1972, its ranks included former members of a Waffen SS military unit under Nazi command during the second world war.

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