Marion Anne Perrine Marine Le Pen is a French politician and lawyer serving as President of the National Rally political party since 2011, with a brief interruption in 2017. She has been the member of the National Assembly for Pas-de-Calais's 11th constituency since 18 June 2017. She is the youngest daughter of party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and the aunt of former FN MP Marion Maréchal-Le Pen. Le Pen joined the FN in 1986 and was elected as a Regional Councillor , a Member of European Parliament , and a municipal councillor in Hénin-Beaumont . She won the leadership of the FN in 2011, with 67.65% of the vote, defeating Bruno Gollnisch and succeeding her father, who had been president of the party since he founded it in 1972. In 2012, she placed third in the presidential election with 17.90% of the vote, behind François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy. She launched a second bid to become President of France at the 2017 presidential election. She finished second in the first round of the election, with 21.30% of the vote, and faced Emmanuel Macron of centrist party En Marche! in the second round of voting. On 7 May 2017, she conceded after receiving approximately 33.9% of the vote in the second round.Described as more republican than her nationalist father, Le Pen has led a movement of de-demonization of the National Front to soften its image, based on renovated positions and renewed teams, and expelling controversial members accused of racism, antisemitism, or Pétainism. She expelled her father from the party on 20 August 2015, after he made new controversial statements. She has also relaxed some political positions of the party, advocating for civil unions for same-sex couples instead of her party's previous opposition to legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, accepting unconditional abortion and withdrawing the death penalty from her platform.Le Pen was ranked among the most influential people in 2011 and 2015, by the Time 100. In 2016, she was ranked by Politico as the second-most influential MEP in the European Parliament, after President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz.
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