My daughters have been educated in terrible racism.” Journalists, “when Hitler appeared on television, forced them to call his uncle Dolfi” and the answer: “It was a joke, but yes, it was in us. See, I didn't force them -- it was a way to laugh. [Hitlerrekiko] was a gesture of friendship and affection, I think [laughter].” These are words from the mother of Marine Le Pen, Pierrettena, published in 1998, which referred to the journalist Karl Zero and the education of his father Jean-Marie. After her childhood in this family environment, she did not take advantage of her youth to fly on her own: at the age of eighteen she joined the party of the National Front (FN), founded by her father, and worked in far-right student organizations, accompanied by militants of the fascist structure GUD Groupe Union Défense, who for a long time led the Freaton campaign in Chilla.

Of course, Chatillon is no more in the front line of the party: following the strategy of “eradicating the devil’s image” related to the candidature, he has stopped photographing the strongest members of fascism. The introduction in the French Larousse dictionary in 2016 of the word dédiabolisation created by the Le Pen clan to define the process, shows us that we have insisted on the modification carried out by the FN and this until semantic normalization. In 2011, placing 67.65% of its members in his favor, Marine Le Pen won the presidency of the FN and then joined the new strategy, which had been publicly rejected as Jean-Marie Le Pen by the old and tough school Bruno Gollnisch. The change of name was also part of the strategy in 2018: They abandoned the ideological burden – demonic, fascist – assumed by the NNN and placed the National Union RN, like other political parties, as a democratic option.

Now that the FN/RN turns 50, it is worth looking at the evolution of the party, year after year, because the xenophobic authoritarian party is growing in elections. Founded in 1972 by members of the neo-liberal group Ordre Nouveau, nostalgic of French Algeria, Petainists and Nazis, believed that, in addition to activism, they had to walk the legalistic path. 30 years later, Jean-Marie Le Pen arrived for the first time in 2002 at the second round of the French presidency, with 17.8% of the votes against the right Jacques Chirac.

At the time, it had 4.8 million voters in the first round and 5.5 million in the second round. Twenty years later, the candidature always faces the second round, now with greater support from his daughter Marine: 8.1 million voters supported in the first round and 13.2 million in the second. To conclude the dance of the figures, support for the National Front has doubled for 20 years and, more seriously, the number of new voters heading to the far right between the two rounds has increased considerably: In 2002, the right-wing vote increased by 14.58% between the two rounds, by 2022 by 62.9%.

Le dossier Le Pen, edited by the Jean Jaures Foundation. Idéologie, image, électorat (“Le Pen Report. Ideology, image, voter”) is interesting to further understand “the cleanliness of the devil’s appearance”: have the devil been taken from political proposals or communication? That is, besides the skin, do they have the pulp altered or not? Since the 1990s, analyzing the evolution of the sectoral proposals, the authors of the report have a clear conclusion: their programme remains radical from the far right.

The loss of demonic aspect is associated with four elements: “The arrest of the communication by Marine Le Pen, leaving aside the most controversial manifestations of his father”; the presence of the new and violent candidate to the far right Eric Zemmour, “that by the play of mirrors, the positions of Marine Le Pen appear clearly more moderate, although they continue to be the tone of the moderate hands and the perseverance of Marcunediche in the

The Marine Le Pen itself already did that reading in 2011: “Sarkozy has weakened us by stealing our speech, but in the medium term we will get accelerated, thanks to it we will be erased the image of the devil we have.” After a decade since this declaration, we cannot deny that it had a direct forecast.

Change in appearance

The disappearance of the clearest faces of fascism on the front lines and the separation of his father’s anti-Semitic speech does not mean that the party has moved away from those ideas. It has not been defined, but it does not say that fascists have room in the FN/RN family: ideas are not clearly ignored, they stay there. In addition, it should be noted that Marine Le Pen and the majority of party leaders are ancient militants, that is, they are certainly anti-Semitic and negationist formations, assumed and never regretted.

Worse: although for a long time he focused on issues of identity, nationalism and migration, in this campaign he hardly used this letter: “Completely revolutionizing the political culture at the top of the right, Marine Le Pen does not want to be the anti-system candidate, but that of the union”, you can read “Le Pen report. Ideology, image, voter.” It is perfectly filling the betrayal: without saying anything, racists and fascists know that it is their candidacy; and because the racist tone is no more necessary, it manages to bring people together outside the racists thanks to the speech made to ignite what is in socio-economic precariousness: “Look for the ‘anger union’. Your goal for the second round is: Candidature of Jean-Luc Melencesta”.

Zemmour did not reject Le Pen’s pledge to vote for the second round. But he says there are some Nazis in Zemmou supporters: “It’s in communitarianism. I am not in that spirit. My aim is not to defend the village of Asterix, but to return its people to the French. Around Zemmou I see some demonic elements coming and coming out of the history of the FN. Traditionalist Catholics, pagans, and some Nazis. That is not a presidential position.” Le Pen therefore takes the votes of another 2.5 million xenophobic voters in the first round in favour of Zemmou.

Emotions and emotions

In addition to the speech, his attitude has changed radically over the past five years. It looks at the emotions of citizens and acts in agreement. For example, according to the France Emotions survey of May last year, the predominant feeling among the population was sadness (36%) and disappointment (31%), while joy started to appear: "It leaves the active posture (stiff face, aggressive voice, angry finger...) and gives rise to laughs and smiles. If I had a "cold" laugh before, it has now been seen as a gesture of humanization. There's a laugh, which used to be very recently in front of the camera." In the December survey last year, fatigue (57%) is also spreading the "sweetness of the house", among other things, by launching the close relationship of her biker, both through Instagram and Tik Tok and in the journalist's game. Change works, even if it is evident: 46% felt "understood" from Le Pen, followed by Melenchon (41%) and Macro (27%).

It has all worked out, and it is reaping not only the votes on the right, but also those on the non-right. It involves a memorable idea FN/RF: the dangers of dédiabolisation ("FN/RN: the risks of devil strain"): "Fascism doesn't have enough existence, it tries to develop it. Today, the FN is doing what the post-war fascist movements tried to do in the 1970s: to adapt the fascist heritage to its space, directing it to a large group of voters to transform it into 'its image'...

This photo shows right-wing extremist activist Frederic Chatillon, a member of the fascist group GUD Groupe Union Defense. In 2017 he organized the election campaign of Marine Le Pen.