Page "National Front (France)" Paragraph 7

Following the 1974 election, the FN was obscured by the appearance of the Party of New Forces ( PFN ), founded by FN dissidents ( largely from the ON ).

Their competition weakened both parties throughout the 1970s.

During the same time, the FN gained several new groups of supporters, including François Duprat and his " revolutionary nationalists ", Jean-Pierre Stirbois and his " solidarists ", the Nouvelle Droite, and Bernard Anthony.

Following the death of Duprat in a bomb attack, the revolutionary nationalists left the party, while Stirbois became Le Pen's deputy as his solidarists effectively ousted the neo-fascist tendency in the party leadership.

The far-right was marginalised altogether in the 1978 legislative elections, although the PFN was better off.

For the first-ever election for the European Parliament in 1979, the PFN had become part of an attempt to build a " Euro-Right " alliance of European far-right parties, and was in the end the only one of the two that contested the election.

It fielded Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour as its primary candidate, while Le Pen called for voter abstention.