Introducing: The extreme, sometimes comical, family of Marine Le Pen

Meet the Anti-Semite Father, and meet the Ex-Wife with good sense and a sense of humor

In France today, a picture I did not want to see after the first-round of voting, in an election called by Emanuel Macron, was this victory by Marine Le Pen:

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) (this evening): Siegerin: Marine Le pen jubelt am Sonntagabend in Hénin-Beaumont. Reuters

Marine Le Pen of the extreme-right party, Rassemblement National (RN) — known in English as the National Rally, did very well in today’s first round of elections in France, according to the FAZ*, which broke down today’s results, which I will cover in Part 2.

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*FAZ is pronounced: Eff-Ah-Tsett

I have been more familiar than I wanted to be with both Marine Le Pen and with her Father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, born 1928, was the Founder of the Front National, the predecessor to Rassemblement National (RN).

Not only was Jean-Marie Le Pen a racist and right-wing extremist and demagogue, Mr. Le Pen carried it to the extreme of denying the holocaust.

In that Mr. Le Pen lived through the occupation of France through the Third Reich, it is even more damnable that Mr. Le Pen is an anti-Semite.

Unfortunately, France has a long history of anti-Semitism, made evident in the Dreyfus Affair, and through the militant and proto-Fascist, the militant Jules Guérin, publisher of the rag, L’Antijuif (The Anti-Semite), which is said to at times reach a subscription level of circa 120,000 readers. Jule Guérin is (in)famous for holing himself up for circa 23 days in Fort Chabrol against assault by the Republic’s army.

Jean-Marie Le Pen’s extremist, racist, anti-Semitic views did not please everyone in the Le Pen family.

In 1987, after circa 27 years of marriage, Pierrette Lalanne left Jean-Marie Le Pen, being quite offended by the paranoid, extremist political positions that her husband had evolved.

There was nothing private about these matters.

Jean-Marie Le Pen gave an interview to Playboy after his dear wife had left him, in 1987.

Before I go on with the narrative, here are a couple photos of Jean-Marie Le Pen circa 1987.

(Circa 1987: Image: Purepeople, with credit to Bestimage.)

Jean-Marie Le Pen meeting in 1987 with my least favorite right-winger, President Ronald Reagan.

Credit: https://twitter.com/alexandreafonso/status/586132739818184704/photo/1

Which in turn credits: https://arunwithaview.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/le-pen-and-america/?utm_content=buffer069a9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Now, apparently, Jean-Marie Le Pen was as pugilistic in the divorce as he appears in his picture, above, near the time Madame Pierrette Lalanne had left him.

You see, when Playboy interviewed Jean-Marie Le Pen about the pending divorce, Monsieur Le Pen opined that he should not have to pay alimony. Probably unhappy that Madame Lalanne was the party who took the initiative, you see, to leave.

As a matter of fact, Monsieur Le Pen was rather frank about what he thought about Madame Lalanne’s post-divorce rights.

Monsieur Le Pen opined, why should I, after all, the aggrieved Party, have to pay her alimony?

As far as Monsieur Le Pen was concerned, Madame Lalanne could earn her keep as a housemaid and clean up.

Well. It appears that Madame Lalanne took Monsieur Le Pen at his word.

You see, Playboy then interviewed Madame Lalanne.

Upon hearing from the Playboy reporter about his exchange with her ex-husband, Madame Lalanne took Jean-Marie up on his word.

You see, Madame Lalanne changed into a housemaid’s dress and played the part of the cleaner, much to the delight of the (probably majority male) readership of Playboy by appearing as follows:

Here:

And here:

(For both pictures, we are indebted to the Aargauer Zeitung here: https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/panorama/people/marine-le-pens-schandfleck-die-nackige-mutter-ld.1893784

Now, I personally think that Madame Pierrette Lalanne showed great spirit and humor here.

For the record, I think Madam Lalanne’s actions here were innocent, in good taste, and with a twinkle in the eye.

But, you see, Marine Le Pen finds this Playboy episode . . . how did the Aargauer Zeitung put it

. . . einen Schandfleck.

Im Rennen um die Präsidentschaft hat Marine Le Pen einen respektablen Sieg errungen. Damit ist sie ihrem Ziel, die Front und ihren Vater zu rehabilitieren, ein Stück näher gekommen. Nur ihre Mutter wird Marine Le Pen nicht los.

That is: “Shameful. In the race for the Presidency, Marine Le Pen achieved a respectable victory. With that (her victory), she approaches her goal to rehabilitate The Front (i.e., RN) and her Father. Only . . . Marine Le Pen can’t get shut of her Mother.

I recommend the full article here:

https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/panorama/people/marine-le-pens-schandfleck-die-nackige-mutter-ld.1893784

Alright. So where are we now.

Marine Le Pen is fine with her anti-Semitic Father, whose racist, anti-immigrant raging sent her dear Mom, morally outraged and at her limits, out the door.

Jean-Marie Le Pen showed himself to be disreputable in his private life as he was publicly, and refused to provide his wife of 27 years the support she should have been entitled to as a dependent.

And Jean-Marie Le Pen publicly humiliates her in, of all things, a Playboy interview, where he not only affirms he will not pay alimony after a 27-year marriage, but was cruel enough to say to the world that Madame Lalanne that she could earn her daily bread in housecleaning.

When, as a good sport, Madame Lalanne played along and played the actress-role as Housemaid for the cooperative Playboy, showing a royal sense of humor, in today’s politics, in today’s France, Marine Le Pen is not ashamed of her holocaust-denying, racist-thundering Father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, but is prude about a dear woman, her own Mom, Pierrette Le Pen.

And the French are gullible enough to give a big parliamentary boost in the first-round election to the RN, i.e., the Party of Marine Le Pen.