France Link

Le Pen niece and MP quits active role with the Front National

Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, 27, the hardline niece of far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen and one of the party's two MPs, said she has decided for 'personal and political reasons' to quit active politics in a decision her grandfather Jean-Marie Le Pen described as a 'desertion'.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

French far-right MP Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, whose aunt was defeated in Sunday's presidential election, has said she is quitting politics for "personal and political reasons", reports BBC News.

She was seen by some as a future leader of the National Front (FN), founded by her grandfather Jean-Marie Le Pen.

She said she was giving up because she missed her two-year-old daughter but was not leaving politics for good.

Her aunt, Marine Le Pen, won just under 34% in the presidential run-off.

She said she regretted her niece's decision, but - "as a mother" - she understood why she had taken it.

In a letter to her local newspaperin the south-eastern Vaucluse area, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, 27, explained her decision not to defend her role as one of only two FN MPs in the National Assembly.

She is also leaving her position as president of the FN in the wider Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.

Ms Maréchal-Le Pen said she had not spent enough time with her daughter "in her very precious early years - and I have missed her terribly, too. It's vital that I devote more time to her".

At the same time she said politics had been her whole life and she did not rule out a comeback: "I'm not giving up the political fight forever."

She loved the world of business, she added. And if she was going to make a good political boss, then she should take advantage of experiences beyond politics.

Her decision is seen as a blow to the far right, which attracted 10.6m votes on Sunday, its biggest vote on record.

The FN is now hoping to translate that advance into a larger number of seats in parliamentary elections on 11 and 18 June.

The party's presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, has been widely criticised for a series of failings in the final weeks of the campaign, particularly her abrasive performance in the televised pre-election debate.

Marion Maréchal-Le Pen is more hardline than her aunt, who tried to attract a broader range of voters with a greater focus on social policies.

Read more of this report from BBC News.