Marine Le Pen at a rally in the Burgundy town of Mâcon, on May 1, 2026. BRUNO AMSELLEM / DIVERGENCE FOR LE MONDE
Marine Le Pen had become intransigent. Years after describing "welfare dependency" as a situation "unworthy of the status of citizen" in her book A contre flots ("Against the tide," 2006), and after promising to tackle it during the 2022 presidential campaign, the leader of the French had stopped using the loaded term. It was discriminatory toward working-class people, the three-time presidential candidate argued.
"I don't want to fuel the idea, promoted by our political leaders and by a number of political parties, that unemployment is the fault of those who don't want to work," the leader of the Rassemblement National (RN) party said in October 2025, describing the term as absent "from my platform and my vocabulary." That position radically changed on May 1, 2026.
In a speech in the Burgundy town of Mâcon, Le Pen sought to "clarify" her "economic philosophy." But above all, her remarks resulted in yet another about-face, semantically and ideologically. Three times, she reintroduced "welfare dependency" (assistanat, in French) into her vocabulary. "The necessary national solidarity, in which I deeply believe and which I defend with the greatest determination because it is natural, has nothing to do with unhealthy adherence to welfare dependency that is endemic, maintained and encouraged," she said.
