Marine Le Pen courts France’s elite, rattling the far right’s old guard

PARIS – Marine Le Pen’s push to make France’s far right palatable to the country’s corporate and old-money elite is stirring tensions inside her party as it edges closer than ever to the presidency.

A new circle of advisers with elite pedigrees is asserting influence, adopting what some National Rally officials describe as a “know-it-all” style that grates on the old guard.

Courting high society risks alienating the base who fuelled the party’s rise and that has long been wary of financiers and high-powered networks, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The internal friction comes at a pivotal moment, with the party leading polls roughly a year before the next presidential election, and just as France heads into its two-round municipal vote on March 15 and March 22 – an early test of the party’s electability.

Despite a ban that prevents Le Pen from running in 2027 over a conviction for misusing European Union funds – a ruling she is appealing – the National Rally remains France’s strongest political force in surveys.

Even with the largely untested 30-year-old protégé Jordan Bardella as a potential stand-in, the party still tops polls. 

Party leaders dismiss talk of internal strains and credit its rise to Le Pen’s years-long effort to “de-demonise” the movement. 

“As in all political parties, there are sometimes differences of opinion and quarrels, but in the end it is Marine who decides,” said Mr Louis Aliot, the National Rally’s vice-president, insisting it remains united.

Complicating matters further is the international backdrop.

Mr Donald Trump’s return to the White House – marked by trade tensions and talk of acquiring Greenland – has unsettled some National Rally voters, many of whom hold strong nationalist views.

So winning over establishment figures at home could bring not only campaign funding but also the credibility with conservative voters that has long eluded Le Pen – potentially helping secure a path to the presidency.

Versailles connection

At the centre of the outreach is a small circle of advisers – mostly millennials with similar backgrounds who grew up in the affluent Paris suburb of Versailles, a bastion of traditional Catholic conservatism.

Their technocratic style marks a sharp break from the party’s populist roots.

Among the most prominent is Mr François Durvye, a millionaire investment fund manager who met Le Pen in 2021 – when she was still denouncing global finance as the enemy of the people.

The two quickly became close, according to three National Rally officials.

The following year, Mr Durvye hosted Le Pen and several aides at his Normandy castle to prepare for a televised debate ahead of the 2022 presidential run off.

They rehearsed for hours, according to party officials, with Mr Durvye taking notes as others role played President Emmanuel Macron.

Le Pen ultimately lost the election, but narrowed the margin significantly.

A poll by Odoxa-Backbone for Le Figaro found that about half of voters thought the debate had no clear winner.

Five years earlier, more than two-thirds had judged Mr Macron the stronger performer.

Mr Durvye was introduced to Le Pen by Mr Renaud Labaye, a former finance ministry official who now runs the National Rally’s operations in the Lower House of Parliament.

The circle also includes Le Pen’s chief of staff Ambroise de Rancourt, a former defence ministry official and graduate of the National School of Administration (ENA), which has produced generations of French political leaders, including Mr Macron himself.

“Ambroise, Renaud, François… war machines, I’ve never had such bright minds,” Le Pen told Libération in 2025. “They are a sign that we can talk to a different world, they build bridges with the economic world.”

Those bridges are increasingly visible.

In meetings with business leaders – from public panels to discreet dinners – Le Pen and Mr Bardella have pitched tax cuts, reduced red tape and the creation of a sovereign wealth fund financed with 0.3 per cent of personal savings to support private companies, according to three CEOs who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Plans to adjust a levy benefiting high earners have quietly been shelved.

“There’s a big difference compared to other parties: The National Rally can’t afford to have an unrealistic economic program,” said Mr Durvye, noting the heightened scrutiny faced by a party that has never held power. “The party is positioning itself in order to be ready to govern.”

Boardroom scepticism

Whether that interest translates into support remains uncertain.

Ten CEOs who spoke on condition of anonymity gave a cautious assessment of their encounters with the party leadership. Discussions that turned technical often exposed gaps in expertise, they said.

The party’s legislative record suggests there’s no linear economic rationale driving their decisions.

National Rally lawmakers have supported measures easing taxes on small companies and opposed restoring France’s wealth tax, while also backing levies on multinationals and holding companies.

The party remains opposed to raising the retirement age and in October proposed trimming bank fees – a stance that, as one observer put it, “terrorises” lenders.

“Their economic policy remains incoherent,” said Mr Ross McInnes, chairman of the aerospace group Safran, who met both leaders in recent months.

“There seem to be two lines and it’s not very clear which is likely to prevail,” he added, noting the party’s protectionist impulse as a concern.

Party adviser mr Labaye pushed back on questions over inconsistencies in the party’s economic proposals, saying its leadership sets broad priorities but adapts measures to events and geopolitical shifts.

The programme is shaped by internal debate and it’s “normal and desirable” to have differing views, he said.

Some executives said they would prefer Mr Bardella as candidate, seeing him as more instinctively pro-business and more engaged in economic discussions.

But with far less experience than Le Pen, he is also viewed as lacking firmly developed policy convictions, with one CEO describing him as a blank page.

Mr Alexandre Loubet, a senior lawmaker and Mr Bardella’s top adviser, rejected the characterisation as unfair, saying the party’s president has a track record of promoting pro-business views and believes “creating jobs is the best way to improve people’s lives.” 

Party insiders say the bigger problem is that the strategy may fail on both fronts: the effort to court elites could alienate core supporters without delivering the new voters the group needs.

One senior National Rally official was blunter still, saying that the outreach strategy is doomed from the start as France remains a deeply class-conscious society.

Wealthy families and established business networks, the official said, will never fully embrace a party that defines itself as a champion of the poor and less-educated.

Base concerns

Those tensions are already visible among the voters who built the National Rally into a political powerhouse as some longtime supporters say the party is drifting away from them.

Ms Sylvie, a 40-year-old caregiver who declined to give her full name, voted for Le Pen in 2022 but now says she is unsure she would support a National Rally candidate again.

She resents the party’s retreat from proposals to exit the European Union and its softer stance on taxing the wealthy.

“The closer they get to power, the more they look like all the others,” she said. “If they’re just like any other party, then what’s the point of voting for them?”

In the 2024 parliamentary snap elections, the party won 57 per cent of the working-class vote but just 22 per cent among highly educated and higher-income voters, according to an Ipsos-BVA poll.

Mr Labaye says the party remains firmly focused on its traditional base. “You can’t take the support of any voter for granted,” he said.

Analysts, however, see a treacherous balancing act ahead as the National Rally gears up for the presidential campaign next year. 

“When you surround yourself with bourgeois folks with fancy degrees, you don’t sound the same anymore,” said Mr Jean-Yves Camus, a political scientist who specialises in the far right.

“The momentum is there, but you can be very close to the goal and still not score.” BLOOMBERG