Marine Le Pen vows to put French citizens first in campaign launch

September 13, 2026 adminsr

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen launched her presidential campaign with a promise that French people would “have priority in their own country”, emphasising her party’s cornerstone goal to grant citizens preference on social housing, welfare and government jobs.

In a speech in her stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont in northern France, the four-time presidential candidate argued that such a “national preference” — slammed by critics as divisive, unconstitutional and xenophobic — was “an act of basic justice” and “morality” that “should be legal”.

The sortie was a way for Le Pen to remind voters of the political identity of the Rassemblement National as she sought to convince them that her anti-immigration, Eurosceptic party should be trusted with the reins of power. She was also trying to close a rocky period during which tensions within the RN over issues such as banning the Muslim veil in public and pensions have leaked out.

Establishing a “national preference” for French citizens has been in the far right’s programme since her father Jean-Marie Le Pen founded the party, then called the Front National, in the 1970s.

But putting the RN’s vision in place would run into steep challenges and would require changing the French constitution, probably via a referendum. Such a “national preference” would also contravene the laws of the EU.

Le Pen defended such a move, saying, ‘‘it would not be a negative act, but an act of basic justice”.

Polls show Le Pen would capture more than 30 per cent in first-round balloting in the race to replace President Emmanuel Macron next spring and would win in most run-off scenarios.

The other candidates are in effect competing to make the run-off. The two strongest are Macron’s centre-right former prime minister Édouard Philippe, who is polling between 15 and 23 per cent depending on the scenario, and far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, at 15 to 17 per cent.

Jordan Bardella, left, did not speak at the rally and has returned to the role of faithful lieutenant after Le Pen made an unexpected comeback in July © Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters

The presidential campaign is getting under way against a backdrop of stuttering economic growth and a looming battle over next year’s budget that risks again bringing down the minority government.

France has been hit with much higher borrowing costs and slowing growth this year, as well as continued parliamentary gridlock, which are all complicating fiscal consolidation.

At the rally on Sunday, Le Pen also aimed to show that she was again the uncontested leader of the RN.

For months, her popular number two, Jordan Bardella, was being lined up to run for president in her place if she was barred from running because of a criminal conviction for corruption.

But Le Pen made an unexpected comeback in July when an appeals court confirmed the guilty verdict while shortening the lower court’s five-year electoral ban, allowing her to run.

Since then Bardella has had to retreat from the limelight to again be the faithful lieutenant who Le Pen has promised would be prime minister if she were elected next year. Unusually, Bardella did not speak at the rally.

Le Pen in the speech cast her campaign as a mission to restore France to its former glory by repairing damaged public services, liberating the public from regulatory and tax burdens. For the first time, she also outlined a plan to address the housing crisis.

One priority, she said, was to cut value added tax on petrol from 20 per cent to 5 per cent to alleviate pressure on consumers struggling with high energy prices caused by the Iran war. Such a move would blow a hole in the budget, just as the government is trying to narrow wide deficits that now stand at 5.1 per cent.

“We will put an end to the fiscal plunder inflicted on the French by a profligate state,” Le Pen said.