From Poujade to Jean-Marie Le Pen to Marine Le Pen: a populist lineage in France?

The reconstitution of the genealogy of political movements contributes directly to the ideological conflicts in progress and in the symbolic struggles that, by imposing a representation of past movements, create and consolidate their interpretations today. Not only their historical and political legitimacy, but also their present intelligibility are at stake. The populist lineage attributed to the National Front (and since 2018 Rassemblement National) is an exemplary illustration. A populist lineage is attributed to it when it appears on the national political scene in the 1980s. This lineage began with boulangisme in the nineteenth century, passed through poujadisme in the 1950s and continued in the lepéniste party. This chapter focuses on its creation, modalities, issues and consequences. The socio-historical restitution of its construction is indeed interesting for the understanding of both the success of ‘populism’, which has become a transhistorical and transnational phenomenon, and of the risks currently weighing on democracy.