Introducing Pepe Le Pen, the Face of the French ‘Alt-Right’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Sam Kestenbaum December 16, 2016
In the hours after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential elections, bloggers on the white nationalist “alt-right” were exuberant. Their hours of trolling on Twitter for The Donald had paid off. The flood of amateurish viral images — where they recast Trump as a white crusader or a dark Emperor in Star Wars or the smirking anti-Semitic Pepe the Frog — had real power. The message flew around on chat-rooms: “We memed a president into office.”
Now the alt-right wants to launch a similar campaign for another far-right candidate who they see as an ally in their vision of global revolution — Marine Le Pen.
Days after Trump’s win, a Reddit thread dedicated to France’s far-right National Front party leader Le Pen filled with memes. Users recast Le Pen as a green-skinned amphibian in the style of Pepe the Frog. “I understand you require memes,” a user named globalism_sux wrote. “I bring you Pepe Le Pen.”
One commenter wrote: “A meme has been born.”
Some commenters weren’t sure how to dub their new Frog-Le Pen. One user named normieman suggested “LePepe,” and another, SeanSeanstonIreland, suggested: “Le Penpe.”
Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected]
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