The far-right Rassemblement National party came out on top of the European elections in France on Sunday, June 9, with 31.5% of the votes – more than double the score obtained by President Emmanuel Macron's ruling coalition, which came in second at 14.6%.

What are the origins of this far-right party, originally known as the Front National and renamed the Rassemblement National in 2018? The party's first political bureau, founded in October 1972, included several figures who had fought against the French resistance or supported Philippe Pétain, the head of France's collaborationist Vichy regime in World War II.

In this video, we look back, with historian Nicolas Lebourg, at the context in which the Front National was created ahead of the 1973 legislative elections by Ordre Nouveau, a small group that wanted to set up a fascist state in France.

We also explain how, from the 1980s onward, the Front National used immigration to extend its electorate despite repeated statements denying the Holocaust by its then-president, Jean-Marie Le Pen.