Electoral Performance and Policy Choices in the Front National

Abstract

This article proposes a two-level analysis of the Front National (FN) in the 2017 French presidential and parliamentary elections. The first level focuses on the electoral performances of Marine Le Pen and the FN and analyses both elections in terms of gains and losses at the polls. The second level considers FN policy and argues that the party went into these elections with a programme targeting both left- and right-leaning voters, attempting a policy synthesis that partly fitted and partly subverted Kirchheimer’s paradigm of the ‘catch-all’ party. Both levels of analysis link to a number of strategic considerations prompting debate within the party over the direction to take in order to improve its future electoral prospects.