ABSTRACT
The Rassemblement National (RN) is amongst the most well-known critics of European integration, however, this chapter argues that the RN’s relationship with Europe is more complex than encapsulated by the term Euroscepticism. From a historical standpoint, the party has shifted from moderate support for the European Economic Community to staunch opposition to the European Union. As far as its ideology is concerned, the party has long brought forward an ambivalent position on Europe, divided between vague support for an abstract form of European cooperation based on civilisational proximity with other European countries, and marked opposition to the EU as a concrete form of European collaboration that stifles national sovereignty. Finally, from a purely practical standpoint, the RN owes much of its success to a construction that it appears to openly oppose.
