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Marine Le Pen (born Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen, on 5 August 1968 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French far-right politician, a lawyer and president of the Front National (FN) political party since 16 January 2011. She is the youngest daughter of the French politician, Jean-Marie Le Pen, former president of the FN and currently its honorary chairman.

Life and career

Marine Le Pen is the daughter of French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen and his first wife Pierrette Lalanne. She has been married and divorced twice: from Franck Chauffroy, a businessman, and later from Éric Iorio, a FN municipal councillor. From her first marriage, she had three children born in 1998 and 1999. Le Pen ran in the 2004 French regional elections in the Île-de-France région, winning 12.26% of the votes in the first round and 10.11% in the runoff. She has been one of eight vice-presidents of the FN since April 2003.

Running in the Île-de-France European constituency in the 2004 European election, her list won 8.58% and she was the only FN Member of the European Parliament elected in that constituency.

Marine Le Pen was part of the "TSM" current inside the FN (Tout sauf Mégret, Anybody but Mégret) during the 1990s crisis, along with Jean-Claude Martinez, Roger Holeindre and Bruno Gollnisch.

Since 2002 she has been the president of Generations Le Pen, an organization close to the FN, which aims "to promote the thought and works of Jean-Marie Le Pen" among youth.

In 2006 Jean-Marie Le Pen turned over to her the management of his presidential campaign. Within the FN, she is opposed by notable members (and former members) such as Bruno Gollnisch, Louis Aliot, Carl Lang and Jean-Claude Martinez.

She ran for re-election to the European Parliament in the more electorally favourable North-West constituency in the 2009 European election, winning 10.18% of the vote. She notably defeated a dissident list led by Carl Lang, who won only 1.52% of the vote. Lang, an opponent of Marine Le Pen, had been the FN's top candidate in 2004 in the constituency.

In July 2009, Le Pen, as second candidate on Steeve Briois' list, failed in her attempt to win a municipal by-election in Hénin-Beaumont, a mining town in the industrial north. Le Pen's National Front party lost with 47.6% in a runoff against the winning left-wing candidate. In 2009, she was selected to be the National Front's top candidate in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region for the 2010 regional elections.

President of the National Front (2011-)

During her opening speech in Tours on 16 January 2011, Marine Le Pen advocated to "restore the political framework of the national community" and to implement the direct democracy which enables the "civic responsibility and the collective tie" thanks to the participation of public-spirited citizens for the decisions. The predominant political theme was the uncompromising defence of a protective and efficient State, which favours secularism, prosperity and liberties. She also denounced the "Europe of Bruxelles" which "everywhere imposed the destructive principles of ultra-liberalism and Free trade, at the expense of public utilities, employment, social equity and even our economic growth which became within twenty years the weakest of the world.

During a press conference on 20 January 2011, she presented the new organization chart, the renewed Executive Office and Executive Committee, the prospects for the 2011 cantonal elections.

During her first National Council held in Sèvres (Hauts-de-Seine) on 12 February 2011, she officially launched the political campaign of the 2011 cantonal elections.

During her first visit at the Paris International Agricultural Show on 25 February 2011, she denounced the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as an "unbearable bureaucracy" and advocated to substitute it for a "French agricultural policy". She also claimed that "leaving the EU, we could allocate 15 billions of euro to our agriculture".