French Far-Right Party Clarifies Stance on Dual Citizenship After Controversial Remarks

"When you have a nationality, you have one, because it says a lot about what you are, and what you are attached to," estimated Sébastien Chenu on Thursday, June 13, on the flagship program of C8 "Touche pas à mon poste". He will add: "You can’t be French for some things and Uruguayan for others." These remarks are contrary to the position of the Rassemblement national (RN) on the issue. In a post on X, the vice-president of the party makes his mea culpa. "Questioned tonight by @Cyrilhanouna, I mentioned the abolition of dual nationality: Mea culpa. @MLP_officiel has given up on this measure and does not intend to go back to it! At least it’s clear. Error corrected. #tpmp #hanouna #clarity," he writes, acknowledging having made a "mistake". Indeed, Marine Le Pen has given up on the abolition of dual nationality. In 2022, this proposal did not appear in the program of the Rassemblement national (RN) candidate. "I met thousands of people. For example, Moroccans who, legally, cannot renounce their nationality, because their country forbids it. Honestly, I prefer to put that aside, because it’s like putting salt on open wounds," she told Libération.

This is enough to provoke the discontent of her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who considers binationality as "an essential problem".

Following in her father’s footsteps, Marine Le Pen had defended this proposal in 2012 when she was the Front national candidate for the presidential election. In June 2014, the incidents that had marked the celebrations of Algeria’s qualification for the round of 16 of the World Cup pushed her to defend this proposal once again. "You have to choose, be French or be something else. You’re Algerian or you’re French. You’re Moroccan or you’re French," Marine Le Pen hammered on Europe 1 at the time. In 2017, she did not abandon the proposal. The ban on binationality was among the 144 commitments of Marine Le Pen for the presidential election. However, she had modified the proposal. The candidate wanted to "abolish extra-European dual nationality".

The RN has finally abandoned the abolition of dual nationality. As a candidate in the 2022 presidential election, Marine Le Pen had included in her program a proposal that could prevent foreigners and dual nationals from accessing certain jobs. "The law can prohibit access to jobs in administrations, public companies and legal entities entrusted with a public service mission to persons who possess the nationality of another State." If elected, the realization of this proposal would require a revision of the French Constitution. France has more than 3 million dual nationals, including many Moroccans.