Marion Maréchal facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Marion Maréchal
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Official portrait, 2024
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| Member of the European Parliament | |
| Assumed office 16 July 2024 |
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| Constituency | France |
| Member of the National Assembly for Vaucluse's 3rd constituency |
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| In office 20 June 2012 – 20 June 2017 |
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| Preceded by | Jean-Michel Ferrand |
| Succeeded by | Brune Poirson |
| Executive Vice President of Reconquête | |
| In office 19 April 2022 – 12 June 2024 |
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| President | Éric Zemmour |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Marion Jeanne Caroline Le Pen
10 December 1989 Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France |
| Political party | Identity–Freedoms (since 2024) |
| Other political affiliations |
National Rally (2008–2019) Reconquête (2022–2024) Independent member of European Conservatives and Reformists (2024) |
| Spouses |
Matthieu Decosse
(m. 2014; div. 2016)Vincenzo Sofo
(m. 2021) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
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| Relatives | Jean-Marie Le Pen (grandfather) Pierrette Le Pen (grandmother) Marine Le Pen (aunt) Marie-Caroline Le Pen (aunt) Philippe Olivier (uncle) Jordan Bardella (cousin-in-law) |
| Residence | Saint-Cloud |
| Alma mater | Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University |
| Occupation | Educator • Politician |
Marion Maréchal (born 10 December 1989) is a French politician. She has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2024. She is part of the famous Le Pen family. Her grandfather, Jean-Marie Le Pen, started the National Rally party (formerly National Front). Her aunt, Marine Le Pen, later became its leader.
Maréchal was a member of the National Front party. From 2012 to 2017, she served in the National Assembly for the Vaucluse area. When she was elected at 22, she became the youngest person to join the French Parliament in modern history. After the 2015 regional elections, she became a leader in the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
In 2017, Maréchal decided not to run for re-election. She then started a private school called ISSEP in 2018. In 2022, she joined the Reconquête party, led by Éric Zemmour. She led the party's list for the 2024 European Parliament election. However, she was later removed from the party in June 2024 because she asked voters to support other candidates.
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Her Family and Early Life
Marion Maréchal was born on 10 December 1989, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France.
Her grandfather, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founded the National Front party in 1972. Her aunt, Marine Le Pen, became the party's president in 2011. Marion's mother, Yann Le Pen, does not have an official role in the party. Her adoptive father, Samuel Maréchal, led the party's youth movement for seven years. When she was just two years old, Marion appeared with her grandfather on a campaign poster.
In 2013, a journalist wrote that Samuel Maréchal was not her biological father. It was later revealed that her biological father was Roger Auque, a French diplomat. Marion Maréchal took legal action regarding her privacy and won her case in 2015.
Marion Maréchal married businessman Matthieu Decosse in 2014. Their daughter was born that September. They divorced in 2016. In 2018, she became engaged to Italian politician Vincenzo Sofo. They married in 2021, and their daughter Clotilde was born in 2022.
Her Education
Before 2012, Marion Maréchal was studying public business law at Panthéon-Assas University. In November 2012, she announced that she would pause her studies to focus on her work as a politician.
After stepping away from politics in 2017, Marion Maréchal studied for a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Emlyon Business School.
Her First Steps in Politics
Marion Maréchal said that politics was not a main topic at home when she was growing up. She became interested in politics around age 15 or 16. At 18, she joined the National Front party.
Early Elections (2008–2010)
In 2008, she was a candidate in local elections in Saint-Cloud, but she was not elected. In the 2010 regional elections, she was also a candidate in the Yvelines area. Her party's list did not get enough votes to participate in the final round, so she was not elected to the regional council.
Serving in the National Assembly (2012–2017)
In 2012, Marion Maréchal ran for a seat in the National Assembly for the Vaucluse area. She won the election on 17 June 2012. At 22 years old, she became the youngest person to join the French Parliament in modern history.
She and Gilbert Collard were the first members of the National Front to win seats in the National Assembly since 1997.
Becoming More Important in the FN (2012)
In July 2012, Maréchal became a member of the National Front's executive board. In September 2012, she gave her first public speech to a large audience at the party's summer meeting.
Local Politics in Sorgues (2013–2014)
In 2013, she announced that she would be a candidate in local elections in Sorgues, a town in her constituency. She was placed tenth on the list. In the first round of the elections in March 2014, her list came second. She was not elected as a local councillor in Sorgues.
Running for Regional Leader (2015)
In April 2015, her party chose Marion Maréchal to be the main candidate for the southeastern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. This happened after her grandfather was removed from the party.
In the first round of voting, she won 40.55% of the votes. However, in the second round, she lost to Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice. Even though she lost, she received the best result for a National Front candidate in those elections.
Taking a Break from Politics
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In 2018, she started a private school called ISSEP in Lyon.
Between 2017 and 2019, some people thought she might run for president in the 2022 French election.
After a two-year break, Marion Maréchal appeared at a political meeting in Paris in September 2019 with writer Éric Zemmour. This meeting was part of an effort to bring together different right-wing groups in France. Marion Maréchal became a key figure in this effort to form a united conservative front.
Maréchal also signed the Madrid Charter. This document, created by a Spanish political party, expresses concerns about certain left-wing ideas in Latin America. It talks about "totalitarian regimes" and groups that aim to "destabilize liberal democracies."
Returning to Politics
Marion Maréchal returned to politics in March 2022. She supported Éric Zemmour's campaign for the 2022 French presidential election. She officially announced her support at a large rally in Toulon.
On 9 June 2024, she was elected to the European Parliament. She was the main candidate for the Reconquête party list. However, on 12 June 2024, Éric Zemmour removed her from the party. This happened after she encouraged French citizens to vote for candidates from the National Rally party in the upcoming legislative election. She later joined the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament.
In October 2024, she announced that she was creating a new political party called Identity–Freedoms.
Her Political Ideas
Marion Maréchal's political views generally matched those of the National Front party in 2013.
She is considered to be more on the right side of the political spectrum than the National Rally's main line. When she was a vice-president of the party, she represented its focus on national identity and economic freedom.
Social Views
Maréchal has said that her party has always supported the "defense of the family." She participated in large protests in Paris against same-sex marriage in 2013.
She believes that people in France should follow the country's traditional culture. She has stated that she prefers life imprisonment without parole instead of capital punishment (the death penalty). She thinks capital punishment puts a difficult choice on judges and has the risk of a miscarriage of justice (wrongful conviction).
Some people describe Maréchal as someone who looks and speaks in a modern way but holds traditional social beliefs.
Views on Foreign Policy and the EU
Maréchal was part of parliamentary groups that aimed to build friendships between France and countries like Russia and Ivory Coast.
In December 2012, she attended an international meeting in Moscow. In January 2013, she was present at a ceremony in Germany celebrating a treaty between France and Germany. She stated that this treaty was originally about cooperation between two independent countries and spoke against a "forced march towards a German federal Europe."
In September 2013, Maréchal attended a political event in Belgium. She explained that it was important for "patriotic and euro-critical parties" to work together for the European elections. She believed they should resist the Euro currency and globalism.
Her Work in Parliament
Along with Gilbert Collard, Maréchal proposed a bill in December 2012 about how members of the Constitutional Council of France are chosen.
She also co-signed other bills. One of these aimed to prevent marriage between same-sex people. Another aimed to strengthen the process for removing a President of the Republic from office.
As a member of parliament, Maréchal could ask questions to the government. She asked about policies regarding Romani people, fighting welfare fraud, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
In May 2013, she also raised concerns about how rugby league was treated in France by the government and media. She mentioned that this sport was banned during the Vichy regime.
In April 2015, Maréchal criticized the Socialist Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, in parliament. She called his attitude "cretinous contempt," which became a popular video. She later explained that she was referring to a philosopher who had used the same word for Valls.
Political Roles
- Member of the National Assembly for Vaucluse's 3rd constituency, from 20 June 2012 to 20 June 2017.
- She was a member of the committee for cultural affairs and education, and later the committee on Foreign Affairs.
- She was also part of study groups on Heritage, rural policies, and Shale gas.
- She was a member of friendship groups with Russia and Ivory Coast.
As one of the youngest members of the new Assembly, Maréchal served as a secretary during the opening of the fourteenth legislature on 26 June 2012.
Maréchal was an independent member of the National Assembly.
Images for kids
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Official portrait, 2024
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Vaucluse's 3rd constituency highlighted in green
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Marion Maréchal in 2012
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Electoral posters in Saint-Didier, Vaucluse
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Maréchal speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland
See also
In Spanish: Marion Maréchal para niños
