In 1997, Jean-Marie Le Pen was already not known for his temperance values. During a fight in Mantes-la-Jolie, he went so far as to attack a socialist candidate.
On May 30, 1997, the images broadcast without editing on the public channel are barely credible. Jean-Marie Le Pen appears there throwing himself headlong into a fight near the Notre-Dame church in Mantes-la-Jolie, in Yvelines. Accompanied by his bodyguards, he targeted anti-FN activists who welcomed him with hostile banners and slogans. “To the extent that I am being attacked, I have never been afraid of another man. Or even of several!”, he defended himself in front of the cameras present.
Unleashed, he comes to blows in an overloaded atmosphere where blows and insults rain down. “I’m going to make you run, you’ll see, the redhead over there. Huh? Fag!”, he said to an activist chased by his henchmen, before exulting as he continued on his way: “Ah, it makes me feel younger!”
But Jean-Marie Le Pen does not stop there. He also attacks an elected representative of the Republic: the socialist mayor of the neighboring town Annette Peulvast-Bergeal, although recognizable thanks to her blue-white-red scarf. The deputy, hidden behind her bodyguard, tries as best she can to avoid him. But nothing works. “We’re fed up with you, we’re fed up!”, he yelled once he reached her, before cheerfully molesting her.
Having come to support his daughter Marie-Caroline, candidate in the eighth constituency of Yvelines, he will emerge from this day with a new summons before the courts. “At first instance, Jean-Marie Le Pen was convicted of violence against a person responsible for public order in the exercise of his functions by the Versailles criminal court and received a three-month suspended prison sentence, 200,000 francs of fine (around 44,000 euros) and two years of ineligibility”, recalls the INA. A decision with decisive consequences for the former president of the RN since it will prevent him from running in the 1999 European elections.