Their appearance was all the more remarkable considering Le Pen’s father, National Front founder Jean-Marie, was convicted of inciting racial hatred for saying the gas chambers used to kill Jews during the Holocaust were “merely a detail in the history of the Second World War”.
The march is the most striking sign to date that Le Pen’s strategy to normalise the party’s image is working, taking down one more barrier in her quest for respectability and boosting her chances in future elections, analysts say.
In France, analysts say Le Pen has implemented it so effectively that it is breaking the glass barrier many said blocked the far right from coming to power - a prospect that is horrifying critics who accuse her of political opportunism and of hiding her party’s true colours.
Le Pen’s strategy fits into what has happened elsewhere in Europe, in Italy for instance, where Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government has taken a firmly pro-Israeli stance since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out, a line it embraced long ago to gain respectability.
In Britain, the right of the ruling Conservative Party has adopted a staunchly pro-Israel position and criticised the large demonstrations in support of Palestinians as “hate marches” led by “mobs”.
So when I see a big party abandoning antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and march towards the Republic’s values, I’m glad," French lawyer and Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld said in Le Figaro newspaper.
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