MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Marine Le Pen (full name Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen) was born on August 5, 1968 in Neuilly-sur-Seine.
She is the youngest of the three daughters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the National Front (FN).
Le Pen graduated from Pantheon-Assas University, referred to as Assas or Paris II, with a Master of Laws in 1991 and a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) in criminal law in 1992.
From 1992 to 1998 she practiced law in Paris.
Between 1998 and 2004 she headed the law department of the National Front. During this same time, she held the mandate of regional councilor in the district of Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
In 2000, she was promoted to leading positions at the FN, rising from a Politburo member in 2000 to a vice-president in 2003, an FN Central Committee member in 2007, and the executive vice-president for education, public relations and propaganda.
In 2004, she was elected to the European Parliament from the National Front.
Between 2008 and 2011, she sat on the municipal council of Henin-Beaumont in the district of Pas-de-Calais.
In 2009, she was re-elected to the European Parliament and became a member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. In the next year, she was once again elected municipal councilor in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais district.
On January 16, 2011, Marine Le Pen was elected as president of the National Front.
In 2012, she ran for the French president office from the National Front, winning 17.9 percent of the vote in the first round and finished third after Nicolas Sarkozy and incumbent President Francois Hollande.
In March 2014, the National Front led by Le Pen won about 7 percent of the vote in municipal elections. Two months later, she led the National Front to victory in the European Parliament election in France with 26 percent of the vote.
On February 9, 2016, Le Pen was the first to announce her candidacy for the 2017 French presidential election. She was officially registered as a presidential candidate on March 18, 2017.
Marine Le Pen has been married twice and has three children.
