Marine Le Pen's party, the National Front secured eight seats in the French National Assembly during recent parliamentary elections, and Le Pen herself is among the winners. The unfortunate presidential candidate gained 33.9 percent of the popular vote, collecting 10,638,475 ballots, the National Post reported. She is hopeful of uniting the ten million voters who gave her their ballots to create a new opposing force beyond the party founded by her father.
Parliamentary elections
After achieving a record for the National Front during the presidential elections, and gaining twice as many votes as her father in 2002, the hardline leader was hopeful of becoming the "head of the opposition" against the elected President Emmanuel Macron.
However, her voters -- and French voters in general -- did not seem very excited. With a turnout of only 42.64 percent, the smallest in the history of the Fifth French Republic, the anti-immigration party harvested only 8.75 percent of the votes and gained eight seats. This was four times more than in 2012 but not enough to be allowed to create a parliamentary group (min.15). Nevertheless, Le Pen's party scored only 1,590,869 ballots, way less than she did in the presidential elections two months ago.
President Macron's En Marche! and its allies achieved a historical victory obtaining around 80 percent of the seats. Surprisingly, political forces that were beaten by Le Pen during the presidential elections, mainly the classical conservative right and the radical left represented by Jean-Luc Melenchon, scored way better than the Front National.
It is worth mentioning that Marine Le Pen campaigned in challenging elections because of a funding crisis.
Internal Complications
Since her defeat, Le Pen has also faced challenges within her own party. After losing the presidential debate many deemed her "unworthy" of becoming president. The departure of very the popular niece and former deputy Marion Marechal-Le Pen was upsetting to a lot of the Front National supporters, and the seat of the latter in the Vaucluse constituency was lost.
Conflict is also arising around whether the party must keep insisting on ditching the euro or not. Le Pen also has some legal issues as she will have to go to court because of accusations of engaging in fictitious jobs.
The chief of the National Front promised to undergo serious reforms in the party and will most probably change its name.
The aim of such changes is encouraging more sympathizers to overcome the reservations they might have about the Party's controversial and antisemitic past.
But still, Le Pen should not be underestimated
With more than half of the French voters abstaining, most of Le Pen's supporters were not motivated. The scores of the Front National's leader regressed, but her potential must not be underestimated. The party grew considerably during the past years, and with a seat in parliament and radical reforms within her party, Le Pen might have her chance to be heard and to motivate many of Macron's opponents. As for 2022, it all has to do with how politics will evolve in the next five years.
