Inside the Mind of Marine Le Pen

by Michel Eltchaninoff (Author)

What drives Marine Le Pen and France's Front National? Has her party really changed its ways, or is she merely rebranding its old ideas and policies for a new era?

In the age of Brexit and Trump, France too has seen a growing audience for identity-based politics. Under 'Marine', the FN is enjoying unprecedented success. But what's her secret?

This is a probing investigation into the philosophy of Marine Le Pen's FN. It seeks answers in her speeches, in the history of French nationalism and in revealing interviews with those on the far right-including Jean-Marie Le Pen himself.

Michel Eltchaninoff exposes a vision of France tyrannized by liberalism and seduced by the offer of an uncompromising alternative: a Republic 'beyond Left and Right', defined by its enemies and aligned with Putin's Russia. Whatever Marine Le Pen is thinking, she has not forgotten the FN's roots. The French far right is now stronger than ever.

About the Author
Michel Eltchaninoff is an award-winning French writer. He is the editor-in-chief of the monthly Philosophie Magazine.

Review
"Michel Eltchaninoff's task is . . . an important and urgent one: to subject Le Pen's words to rigorous analysis, exposing their true meaning. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that the leopard has not changed its spots."–The Guardian

"Drawing on interviews with many of the politicians and thinkers . . . close to . . . Le Pen [Eltchaninoff] . . . . persuasively show[s] how ideas that have shaped the culture [of Le Pen] have in turn shaped [her]."–The Financial Times

"For Michel Eltchaninoff, Marine Le Pen's positioning as 'neither left nor right' is in fact a revival of an important facet of far-right thought: national socialism. Behind this 'renovation', the party's vision and core have not changed." - Le Vif/L'Express

"There is no point in demonizing a woman who has sought to 'de-demonize' her father's