The 'new discourse of the Front National under Marine Le Pen : A slight change with a big impact

In recent years, the Front National, under the leadership of Marine Le Pen, has experienced a political
revival. In elections, membership numbers and public opinion polls, the party has made impressive
gains. We argue in this article that these gains stem, at least in part, from a strategic repositioning of
the party based on a more populist discourse and communication style. Through a content analysis of
posts (press releases) on the party’s Facebook page from 2013 to 2015, we first highlight that, besides
giving the Front National a more presentable image, Marine Le Pen has changed the Front National
on two fronts: (1) she has rendered the party’s discourse more populist and (2) she has managed to
reframe the party’s leitmotif of immigration. Second, through quantitative analysis of ‘Likes’ for each
post, we find that this new discourse resonates well with Front National sympathizers.