The rise of France's far right

FILE PHOTO: Marine Le Pen, President of the French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National - RN) party parliamentary group, is surrounded by journalists as she arrives at the RN party headquarters in Paris, the day after French far-right win in European Parliament vote and the announcement of early legislative elections in France, June 10, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

PARIS (Reuters) - After decades as political pariahs, the far right in France may finally have a chance to form a national government after a two-round legislative vote that begins on Sunday and will conclude on July 7.

FILE PHOTO: Jordan Bardella, President of the French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National - RN) party, attends a press conference to present policy priorities as part of the campaign for the upcoming French parliamentary elections, in Paris, France, June 24, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

Following are historical highlights of a movement that has been dominated by the Le Pen family for more than half a century.

1972

Former soldier Jean-Marie Le Pen founds the National Front, a fringe far-right party comprised of veterans from the Algerian war and French collaborators from the Vichy regime.

FILE PHOTO: French far-right National Front (FN) founder Jean-Marie Le Pen delivers a speech during a May Day ceremony in front of the statue of Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) in Paris, France, May 1, 2019. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo

1974

Le Pen runs in the presidential election, but garners less than 1% of the vote. Two years later, his home in Paris is attacked with a bomb. No culprit is ever found.

1981

Le Pen is unable to secure enough backers to run for the presidential election, won by leftist François Mitterrand. In the following years, Le Pen gradually attracts new supporters.

1986

The party wins its first seats in the National Assembly.

1987

Le Pen makes disparaging comments about gay men with AIDS, part of a lifelong tendency to spark outrage with racist, antisemitic and homophobic slurs that often land him in legal jeopardy but which win support among a part of the electorate.

1988

Le Pen wins 14.4% of votes in the presidential election. The following year, the National Front wins more than 10% of votes in European elections. It also begins to zero in on Islam and Muslim immigrants as one of its major political concerns.

1995

The National Front wins three city halls in the south, Toulon, Orange and Marignane, underlining its growing electoral support.

2002

Le Pen runs for president and wins 16.86% of votes, enough to put him into a second-round run-off against Jacques Chirac. The strong showing sends shockwaves through France and there is widespread disgust that such a far-right party could do so well. Politicians from the right and left come together to prevent Le Pen from winning the second round. Chirac wins over 80% of votes in the run-off.

2008

A court hands Le Pen a three-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros for saying the Nazi occupation of France was "not particularly inhumane".

2011

Le Pen's daughter Marine Le Pen becomes the new leader of the National Front after a period in which the party performs badly in polls and faces growing financial pressures.

2012

Marine Le Pen makes a first, unsuccessful run for the presidency.

2014

The National Front has a breakthrough election year, winning control of 11 town halls and also taking first place in European Parliament elections.

2015

Jean Marie Le Pen is suspended from the party after describing the Holocaust as "a detail" of World War Two. That same year, he is expelled by his daughter from the party.

2017

Marine Le Pen runs for the presidency again, but loses to Emmanuel Macron. After that she increases efforts to make the party more palatable to a wider electorate, seeking to distance it from its racist and antisemitic past, and also give its lawmakers a more professional veneer, with media training and a slick social media presence. In 2018, she changes the party's name to National Rally (RN).

2022

Jordan Bardella, a 28-year-old protege of Marine Le Pen, is chosen to be the new president of the RN.

June 2024

Bardella leads the party in the European Parliament elections, handing out a drubbing to Macron's party and prompting the president to call a snap legislative vote. Bardella is the RN's prime ministerial candidate.

(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Frances Kerry)