Introducing Pepe Le Pen, the Face of the French ‘Alt-Right’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Sam Kestenbaum December 16, 2016
Sign up for Forwarding the News, our essential morning briefing with trusted, nonpartisan news and analysis, curated by Senior Writer Benyamin Cohen.
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]
