French politician Marie-Caroline Le Pen has selected Virginie de Gaulle, a great-grandniece of General Charles de Gaulle, to run on her candidate list for the upcoming Senate elections in the Sarthe department, news outlet BFMTV reported.
The joint candidacy unites two of the most famous surnames in modern French political history on a single electoral ticket for the indirect parliamentary election scheduled for September. Marie-Caroline Le Pen, the elder sister of National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, is organizing the campaign alongside Romain Lemoigne, the newly elected mayor of La Flèche.
Virginie de Gaulle currently serves as mayor of Courcelles-la-Forêt, a rural municipality of around 400 residents located in Sarthe. She won re-election to her mayoral office in March under her married name, Virginie de La Fresnaye, but decided to adopt her maiden name of de Gaulle for the senatorial ballot on the National Rally ticket.
Explaining her decision in an interview with local newspaper Le Maine Libre, de Gaulle described her candidacy as a personal commitment. She stated that she chose to join the National Rally because she believes its representatives respond directly to the concerns of farmers, hold clear convictions, and maintain an active presence on the ground.
Symbol of National Union
Marie-Caroline Le Pen formally presented her senatorial list to the press before publishing the announcement on social media platform X. She described the combined Le Pen and de Gaulle campaign as a clear illustration of the National Union strategy advocated by her political movement.
National Rally lawmakers quickly expressed support for the candidate roster online. Member of Parliament Jean-Philippe Tanguy posted on X to welcome the creation of a Le Pen and de Gaulle ticket in Sarthe, while fellow lawmaker Sébastien Chenu praised the list as a gathering of expertise and dedication aimed at serving both the department and France.
The National Rally, originally founded in 1972 as the National Front by Jean-Marie Le Pen, has increasingly sought to expand its local influence in rural departments across France. In recent municipal contests, the party achieved a significant breakthrough in Sarthe by winning the mayoralty of La Flèche, a subprefecture town in the department, with Romain Lemoigne taking office.
Historical Rivalries and Political Legacy
The appearance of the de Gaulle name on a Le Pen campaign list holds deep political symbolism in France, where the legacies of the two political families have historically diverged. General Charles de Gaulle led the Free French forces during World War II, established the French Fifth Republic in 1958, and served as president until 1969, shaping post-war French politics.
The upcoming election is not the first instance of the Le Pen political movement aligning with a member of the de Gaulle family. In 1999, party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen placed Charles de Gaulle, a grandson of the general, on his candidate list for the European Parliament elections.
That decision drew sharp opposition from within the wartime leader's family. Several relatives of General de Gaulle published a joint opinion piece in the newspaper Le Monde titled simply No, publicly repudiating the political alignment with the far-right party leadership at the time.
Senate Contest in Sarthe
The French Senate serves as the upper chamber of the French Parliament, representing local municipal councils and departmental authorities. Unlike the directly elected National Assembly, senators are chosen through indirect voting by an electoral college made up of local electors, including mayors and municipal councillors.
Three Senate seats are up for election in the department of Sarthe in the September vote. National Rally strategists view the upcoming election as a key opportunity to secure parliamentary representation, capitalizing on their recent municipal success in La Flèche and the high-profile candidate list.
