Introducing Pepe Le Pen, the Face of the French ‘Alt-Right’

Image by Reddit

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 kestenbaum@forward.com

Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.

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