Political opponents of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) are highlighting the party’s historical ties to the Vichy regime that collaborated with Nazi Germany, as France heads into a snap legislative election. Centrist and left-wing politicians have seized on the party’s origins to mobilise voters against its anticipated strong showing, despite President Emmanuel Macron’s past warnings that such attacks may no longer resonate.
The RN was founded as the Front National in 1972 by Jean-Marie Le Pen, and its early ranks included former members of the Waffen SS Charlemagne division and paramilitaries loyal to Philippe Pétain, the authoritarian leader of the Vichy puppet state. Pierre Bousquet, a former Waffen SS member, served as the party’s treasurer for nine years, while another early figure had belonged to the Milice, a Vichy paramilitary that helped deport a quarter of France’s Jewish population.
Sarah Legrain of the leftist La France Insoumise told French television that the RN is “of course” the heir to Vichy, while Valérie Hayer, who led Macron’s centrist list in the European elections, also described the party as the “political heirs” of that era. However, Macron himself has previously cautioned against this tactic. In 2023, when his then-prime minister Élisabeth Borne, whose father survived the Holocaust, made a similar claim, the president appeared exasperated, telling a cabinet meeting: “You will never make millions of people who have voted for the far right believe they are fascists.”
Senior RN official Louis Aliot has rejected the comparison, arguing that Socialist President François Mitterrand, whose early career involved work for the Vichy regime, is the true heir. The RN’s opponents note that Jean-Marie Le Pen, who led the party until 2011, was repeatedly convicted for hate speech and Holocaust denial, including describing the Nazi occupation as “not particularly inhumane” and the Holocaust as a “mere detail” of World War II.
Under Marine Le Pen, who took over in 2011, the party has sought to moderate its image, renaming itself National Rally and expelling her father. Yet its origins continue to be used by rivals as a rallying call in the final days of the campaign, with polls indicating the RN could win the most seats in the National Assembly.
