Front national

Front National and EU allies face €427,000 bill over 'non-compliant' expenses

France — Investigation

The European Parliament is poised to launch proceedings to reclaim “non-compliant” expenses from the far-right parliamentary grouping that includes France's Front National, Mediapart has learnt. The total amount of the expenses involved, which include “unreasonable” claims of meals costing 400 euros a person, and the purchase of 228 bottles of champagne as gifts, comes to 427,000 euros. Ludovic Lamant and Marine Turchi report.

France's far-right National Front to change name

France — Link

Leader Marine Le Pen will unveil a new name for 45-year-old party and a refocus on immigration as it searches for more voters and relevance.

French far-right 'heiress' addresses US conservatives

International — Link

Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, 28, granddaughter of the founder of France's far-right party Front National, who is regarded as a potential future leader of the party currently headed by her aunt Marine Le Pen, was invited to the US Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland where she told the audience that a 'France first' campaign, mirrored on US president Donald Trump's  slogan, is rallied by 'youth ready for this fight in Europe today'.

Front National placed under investigation in EU 'fake jobs' case

International — Link

France's far-right Front National party has been placed under investigation by Paris magistrates over suspicion it fraudulently placed France-based staff on the European Parliament payroll as assistants to its sitting MEPs. 

French cement firm execs face probe over 'financing Islamic State'

France — Investigation

Two former executives at giant French cement manufacturers Lafarge and the head of its security – a former election candidate for Marine Le Pen's far-right Front National – have been formally placed under investigation for alleged “financing of terrorism”. It follows an investigation by French prosecutors into links between the French group – now merged with a Swiss firm – and jihadist groups such as Islamic State. In 2013 and 2014 the cement group maintained its activities in zones in Syria which were at the time controlled by IS and other armed factions. Fabrice Arfi, Michel Deléan and Julien Antoine report.

French central bank okays closure of Le Pen accounts

France — Link

Head of far-right Front National accused banks of 'banking fatwa' after Société Générale and Crédit du Nord shut down her party's accounts.

France's National Front number two quits as tensions split party

France — Link

Florian Philippot, seen as champion of party’s opposition to the euro, quit the party after being stripped of strategic and communications role.

France's National Front on verge of split after election setback

France — Link

Marine Le Pen’s relationship with former close aide Florian Philippot has become so strained experts say it has reached the point of no-return.

France's Front National in brainstorming rethink of policies and name

France — Link

The far-right party, shaken by its collapse in support at the final post of May's presidential election, is holding a two-day closed-door meeting to debate what its leader Marine Le Pen called a 're-founding of the Front National', including a re-think of its policies that France should leave the eurozone and European Union, while also pondering a change of its name.

France's Le Pen put under formal investigation over EU funds

France — Link

Le Pen, who is being investigated for breach of trust, has previously denied any wrongdoing in a case that she has said is politically motivated.

French far-right leader Le Pen loses her lustre

France — Link

Far-right Front National party leader Marine Le Pen once dreamed of leading the principal opposition party to Emmanuel Macron and of marshaling a hundred or more members of parliament to push her party's hard nationalist agenda, but now she could well end up as its only member in the National Assembly.

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

France — Link

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'.

FN forced to replace party leader who denied Nazis used poison gas

France — Link

In 2000 Jean-François Jalkh was recorded saying that it was 'impossible' that Nazis used Zyklon B in concentration camps during World War II.

French mayor fined for 'too many Muslim children' comment

France — Link

Robert Ménard, mayor of Béziers, was fined 2,000 euros for inciting hatred after comments over number of Muslim children in his local schools.

Le Pen steps down as head of far-right party in bid to widen appeal

France — Link

By distancing herself from the party founded by her father in 1972, Marine Le Pen hopes to reach out to new potential voters in second round.