The National Rally (RN) is France's most popular party and the single-biggest party in the 577-seat National Assembly, with 123 seats (up from eight in 2017). It is led by Jordan Bardella, its president, and Marine Le Pen, who leads its parliamentary bloc.
The party was co-founded in 1972 by Jean-Marie Le Pen and a former member of the Waffen-SS. For decades it was an untouchable extremist movement, notorious for antisemitism. Ms Le Pen took over from her father in 2011 and has since rebranded it, kicking out her own father and shedding toxic elements in what the party calls a "necktie strategy": dressing smartly, cleaning up candidates and looking ready to govern. Membership surged from 40,000 in 2022 to 150,000 by late 2025. The party has expanded from a family-run enterprise, which used to meet in the Le Pen mansion, into a national organisation with a headquarters in Paris. Patrice Hubert, a former businessman, serves as its director-general.
The RN's support has expanded from its former heartlands in the south and the north-eastern rustbelt into small towns, rural and semi-rural areas across the country. At the 2024 European elections it topped the ballot in 93% of France's 35,000 communes. In the first round of the 2024 snap legislative election it came first in 259 out of 577 constituencies, including in places such as Brittany that had previously had little appetite for it.
The profile of the RN's voters is "much closer to that of the general population than are the other big political parties", according to Mathieu Gallard of the Fondation Jean-Jaurès. In 2017 only 7% of graduates voted for the RN in the first round of legislative elections; by 2024 that had leapt to 22%, the same share as Emmanuel Macron's centrists. The gender gap has closed: in 2010, 9% of men and 3% of women voted for the party; by 2024 the figures were 32% and 30%. The RN has become the most popular party among 60- to 69-year-olds, who used to shun it. Eric Ciotti, a former leader of the Republicans, defected to Ms Le Pen with a dozen-odd fellow legislators.
The RN has ditched earlier plans to withdraw France from the euro and from NATO's integrated military command. It supports a wealth tax and would lower the pension age for those who start work young. Its core pledges are to curb immigration, defend borders, fight drug-trafficking and reinforce a strong centralised state.
The party does not want France to leave the EU but is radically hostile towards its underlying principles. It would pull France out of the EU's electricity-pricing mechanism to benefit from cheap nuclear power, and seeks a rebate on France's EU budget contribution. Mr Bardella describes the EU as "an association in defence of Germany's interests."
Several senior RN figures remain instinctively sympathetic to Russia, even though the party has condemned the invasion of Ukraine and repaid a loan from a Russian bank. It rejects the idea of sending Ukraine long-range missiles or putting French boots on the ground and opposes Ukrainian membership of NATO or the EU.
The RN's underlying reflex—France first—carries a distinct MAGA-like resonance, though the party does not invoke Donald Trump, who is even less popular in France (18%) than in Britain (22%) or Italy (28%). Nor does it preach family values: a poll says nearly a third of gay men would back Mr Bardella. At rallies supporters chant "This is our home!"
In the mayoral elections held on March 15th and 22nd 2026 the RN claims to have won 70 town halls, up from 13. The only one of France's ten biggest cities it captured was Nice, where it backed Eric Ciotti, a former leader of the Republicans who had defected to Marine Le Pen and had strong local roots. Despite the gains, the broad centre held in major cities, with the Socialists winning six of the top ten. In second-round voting, the cordon sanitaire—under which voters plump for any run-off candidate standing against the RN—remained a factor in the party's relatively poor showing in the biggest prizes.
The RN is close to Viktor Orbán but does not embrace his vision of "illiberal democracy". The UDR party, the RN's main parliamentary ally, set up a months-long inquiry into the impartiality of the public broadcaster. The RN is friendlier towards private outlets, notably CNews, owned by Vincent Bolloré, a right-wing business magnate.
Despite the clean-up, extreme elements occasionally surface. In December 2025 Ms Le Pen disowned David Rachline, the mayor of Fréjus and a vice-president of the party, after he was found to be under investigation for corruption and had posted a photo with two extreme-right figures. During the 2024 candidate scramble a photo emerged of one candidate wearing a Nazi cap; the party quickly ditched her.
When the going gets tough, everyone leaves.