The European Parliament and its funds, the backbone of the FN's political enterprise

Since 2015, the Front National in France has been the subject of a investigation into suspected fictitious employment on parliamentary assistants to FN MEPs. The investigation carried out byEuropean Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) at the European Union level has recently given rise to a claim for recovery of damages 339,946 by the European Parliament.
Emmanuelle Reungoat, University of Montpellier

These practices, undoubtedly a minority in this forum, are typical of parties which, having few elected representatives and/or limited resources, rely partly on funds allocated by the European Parliament to keep their political enterprise alive in their country of origin.
But at the FN, these uses of "Europe" are part of a long-term practice, in place since the 1984 election. While the European parliamentary arena has also contributed to the occasional rise in power of the Greens, for example, in this particular case, its development has indirectly contributed to the destabilization of national political balances in favor of the far right.

Europe", a boon in more ways than one

At the FN, the multiple uses made of the European elections and the parliamentary institution all serve to reinforce the party's material capacity for action, visibility and legitimacy, support the desire to broaden its electoral base and consolidate the leader's position within the party apparatus.
Thus, since its debut on the European stage in 1984, the Front National has made the seats of MEPs and, in some cases, the institutionally-funded assistants who accompany them a veritable "rear base" for the national political struggle waged by its leaders.
Over the decades, in a French national context dominated by a majority electoral system, the European election - based on a proportional ballot - has proved a remarkable electoral boon for small and medium-sized parties, particularly before its 2003 reform.

A vector of professionalization for the FN

When, as in the case of the PCF and the Greens, so-called medium-sized parties can see their leaders gain a national mandate in a legislative ballot via agreements with the "big" parties, the FN's political isolation contributes to making this European election a more decisive opportunity than others. FN executives immediately understood this, and the over-representation of MEPs on the management team has been one of the distinctive features of Marine Le Pen's movement since 1984.
The stakes are high: to enable leaders to become full-time politicians, to live for and from politics. In a closed national competition, the European election is therefore an important vector for the political professionalization of Front Party executives. It is also a way of developing or relieving the party in times of financial difficulty.
The practice of aligning the heads of the FN lists for the European elections with the main members of the political bureau began in the 1980s (see below). In the 1990s, it became an explicit strategy, occasionally disrupted by the demands of parity or the desire to remove executives who threatened the supremacy of the president, Jean-Marie Le Pen. In the order in which the lists are drawn up, the FN president, the general secretary, the general delegate and the party's leading figures are generally included.

But that's not all. In addition to mandates, the material resources and grants made available to MEPs by the parliamentary institution itself are also important sources of development for the frontist organization.

Atypical parliamentary assistants

Although this practice is not necessarily reserved for the FN or the European institution, the employment of assistants attached to MEPs or the European political group also enables parties to employ "permanent staff" whose work may contribute, in part, to supporting the organization's political activity.
While longitudinal data remain incomplete, we can observe the atypical characteristics of FN assistants over the last few legislatures (2004-2009 and 2009-2014). Many have run in local or legislative elections, are often members of the party's Central Committee, and several hold various positions within the party (departmental secretaries, national delegate, advisors, even vice-presidents).
The employment of certain leaders as parliamentary assistants has been common practice at the FN since the 1990s. During the 2009-2014 legislature, for example, three FN vice-presidents were local assistants in the European Parliament (subject to French legislation), at a time when the party was in a delicate financial situation, notoriously in debt: Jean-François Jalkh, Floriant Philippot and Louis Aliot (from 2004, in the case of the latter), Marine Le Pen's companion and campaign coordinator.
Over the last thirty years, the development of elections and the European Parliament have enabled the FN's main leaders to dedicate themselves to politics, to hold office, to gain notoriety and, in particular, for the party's new President, to establish her international stature.

Europe as a resource for legitimization and control

The European Parliament offers additional symbolic resources to the party president via the development of renewed partnerships with certain parties at European level since 2015. These enable Marine Le Pen to showcase leadership positions within a European political group, "Europe of Nations and Freedoms", which she co-chairs.
In addition to presenting an image that counterbalances the party's isolation at national level, the recomposition of the FN's European networks in recent years has reinforced the party's respectability strategy at this level, for example, by ostensibly distancing itself from the most radical parties such as Hungary's Jobbik.
The European arena is also an instrument of domination for the President. This recomposition of European alliances gives Marine Le Pen the opportunity to sideline her former adversary, depriving Bruno Gollnisch of the political resources provided by his strong integration in European networks. Lastly, the European elections have long been a means of controlling the organization for the movement's president, who retains control over nominations.

Political professionals like any others

In the end, beyond the FN, we can see some of the effects of the opening up of a European political arena on national spheres of competition. While this is not always enough to ensure the long-term survival of a new entrant (witness the relative failures of the RPF and MPF), it does indirectly contribute to the pluralism of national systems, and constitutes an issue of conflictuality in the face of the depoliticization produced by the rapprochement of the so-called governing parties.
As for Front leaders, they turn out to be professional politicians, just like the other parties in the "system" (apart from the far left). Contrary to the rhetoric of the "new FN", an analysis of the practices of the new leadership team illustrates, [via its use of Europe as in other areasIt's also an example of the great continuity with the party of previous decades, that of Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Emmanuelle ReungoatPolitical science lecturer, University of Montpellier
Visit original version of this article was published on The Conversation.