Jean-Marie Le Pen: the Evolution of Views on European Integration in the 1980-2000s

The article shows that during the 1980s and 2000s, the position of the head of the French political party National Front, Jean-M. Le Pen, regarding the European integration project, as well as France's place in it, underwent significant changes. It was determined that in the 1980s. J.-M. Le Pen supported European construction, including such integration vectors as European citizenship, joint foreign and defense policy, monetary union, unified immigration controls. At the heart of the “European project” is J.-M. Le Pen was based on the idea of the superiority of the “outstanding” European civilization - the heir to the neo-Hellenistic culture and Christian religion of Europe. The party's program documents postulated the conflicting, polarized nature of the world community. J.-M. Le Pen convinced his fellow citizens that “a European nation can only be created through the need to defend itself from the external threats it faces”. The main threats to the existence of France are J.-M. Le Pen saw the threat as communist, approaching from the east, and Islamic, approaching from the south. Therefore, countering external threats is the most important task of a united Europe. In the 1990-2000s. The president of the National Front switches to a position of Euroscepticism and focuses on the demand for France to withdraw from the European Union. It is shown that the object of criticism is J.-M. Le Pen is becoming such new “enemies” of the French nation as the Brussels bureaucracy and the United States with their “hegemonic aspirations”. The author found that to replace the integration format of the European Union, J.-M. Le Pen proposed a format of cooperation based on “common interest”, such as a confederation of sovereign states - a “Europe of Nations”.