Emmanuel Macron
Born:
21 December 1977 (age 39)
Role:
French Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs
Party:
En Marche! (On the Move). In August 2016, Macron quit the government to form a centrist party and launch a Presidential bid as a maverick outsider
Political career
2017 - Presidential candidate for the En Marche! Party
2014-2016 - Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs
2012-2014 - Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidency
2012–2014 - Head of the Economy and Finances Division
Marine Le Pen
Born:
Neuilly-sur-Seine, August 5 1968 (age 48)
Education:
Panthéon-Assas University, Paris, receiving a Master of Laws and a Master of Advanced Study in Criminal Law
Family:
Daughter of Front National founder Jean-Marie Le Pen. She has three children with her ex-husband, businessman Franck Chauffroy. Her niece is Front National MP Marion Maréchal-Le Pen
Career:
Joined the party at 18; appointed to its national executive in 2000. She was overwhelmingly elected president of the party in 2011.
Ms Le Pen’s career has been marked by her efforts to distance Front National from the more explicitly far-Right party of founder Jean-Marie – a process she has termed “de-demonisation”. This culminated in an attempt to expel her father from the party in 2015, over controversial statements about the Holocaust.
In April 2017, she temporarily stepped down as head of the party in a bid to widen her appeal ahead of the presidential election run-off.
