Jean-Marie Le Pen

Jean-Marie Le Pen is an extremistright-wing French politician who ran for president in 2002 who called for stricter controls against immigration in France, in order to preserve French culture. He has also denied aspects of the Holocaust, has said that the Nazi occupation of France was not severe, and said that AIDS patients should be isolated. He is the leader of the nationalist National Front party and ran in the 2007 French presidential elections.

His immigration policies were called racist by some of his opponents. However, his supporters were sufficiently numerous in 2002, propelling him to the runoff round of the French Presidential election, that Nicolas Sarkozy felt compelled to court them in the 2007 election by running well to the right of his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who had appointed him interior minister, although Sarkozy's message always emphasized economic reform, rather than immigration. This strategy paid off; Sarkozy, always a front-runner, defeated Socialist Ségolène Royal in the runoff round.