PD Smith

Inside the Mind of Marine Le Pen

06 March 2018 | Guardian, Reviewing | Post a comment

I’ve been read­ing for­mer phi­los­o­phy lec­tur­er Michel Eltchaninoff’s study of the ideas of Marine Le Pen. One for­mer senior fig­ure in the Front Nation­al tells him: “Marine Le Pen doesn’t have any ideas. She only acts through instinct, because her brain is like a reptile’s. what ideas? What con­cepts? She’s an echo cham­ber, that’s all!”

But his fas­ci­nat­ing ide­o­log­i­cal detec­tive work shows how her think­ing is deeply embed­ded in the tra­di­tion of French far-right thought: “Le Pen moves behind a mask and she is very good at the game.”

Read my review at the Guardian.

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