Abstract
The National Front was founded in 1972 by Jean-Marie Le Pen and since the 1980s has managed to enter French political life. The European elections of 1984 saw the National Front gain 11% of votes, and in the parliamentary elections of 1986 and 1988, the National Front won 10%. The presidential elections of 1988 saw the National Front benefit from 14.4% of the votes cast in the first ballot. More recently, the presidential elections of 2002 saw Jean-Marie Le Pen face to face with Jacques Chirac. Many countries in Western Europe have experienced a significant rise in extreme right wing parties' popularity and some countries such as Austria and Italy have even witnessed such parties come to power in coalition governments. Several reasons can be evoked when trying to assess why there has been such a rise of the National Front in France, namely, political, social and economic factors, as well as an identity crisis, and other factors grouped into a cultural context. One of the greatest impacts of the rise of the National Front is the changing of the political agenda, which now has a greater focus on immigration issues.
