Continuity and Change in the French National Front’s Platform, 2002-2014

<p>From the moment Marine Le Pen headed the French far-right National Front, the party&#39;s popularity began to grow rapidly. This is confirmed not only by the public opinion polls, but by different types of elections: presidential and parliamentary of 2012, as well as municipal of 2014. Many experts and politicians believe that the success of Marine Le Pen is the result of Marine&rsquo;s move away from a strict policy of her father Jean-Marie Le Pen to softening the party&#39;s ideology. In our study, we check this hypothesis. To achieve this goal, we compare the programs of the National Front of 2002 - 2014 on three key points: socio-economic issues, immigration and globalization. Since the change of the party&#39;s position on the ideological spectrum has a direct effect on its voters, the next step is to compare the ideological self-orientation and socio-demographic profile of the electorate of the National Front in 2002 &ndash; 2014. Analysis of the party documents, as well as the National Front&rsquo;s electorate, leads us to the conclusion that Marine Le Pen did not change the party&rsquo;s attitudes towards &quot;classical&quot; key points of the NF - immigration, security and order. And that helps her to keep party&rsquo;s core electorate. At the same time, she focuses on an issue that has never been paramount to her father - on the socio-economic problems. In this sense, it became possible for Marine to &quot;capture&quot; the leftist electorate disillusioned with its representatives. The success of such accentuation is proved by the fact that the number of workers and women among NF voters increased significantly.</p>