Marine Le Pen faced a hostile crowd of dozens of high school students and supporters of La France Insoumise on Friday during a visit to the Made in France exhibition at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris.
The presidential candidate of the Rassemblement National arrived on a red carpet to promote her proposals on purchasing power and national priority in public procurement. Instead, she encountered boos, shouts, and insults such as “Marine, give back the money!” and “Youth shit on the National Front.”
For three-quarters of an hour, Le Pen attempted to brush off the confrontation by smiling and blowing kisses to her opponents. Her security detail, consisting of a substantial security service, private guards, and about 15 young activists from the Rassemblement National de la Jeunesse, shielded her while chanting “Marine President” against counter-chants of “Mélenchon President.”
Confrontation at the Exhibition
The tense atmosphere inside the exhibition halls pitted teenage protesters from suburban high schools against the candidate’s entourage. Mohamed-Amine, a 17-year-old from Val-d’Oise, said that he supported La France Insoumise, though he maintained his presence was unrelated to an earlier visit by Jean-Luc Mélenchon to the same event.
Alongside the chanting youths, a small group of adults attempted an antifascist clapping routine, which younger participants largely ignored. Laurent, a 48-year-old exhibitor who declined to provide his last name, acknowledged that he knew the politician was coming.
Did You Know? The Made in France exhibition is a major annual event that gathers roughly 1,000 exhibitors and more than 110,000 visitors, making it a key stop for political figures seeking to project an image of industrial defense and economic sovereignty.
After a brief pause in a secluded corner of the main hall, the remainder of Le Pen’s visit proceeded without incident, allowing her to take selfies among the commercial stands. Speaking to the press before her departure, the candidate blamed the disturbances on the extreme left and directly targeted Jean-Luc Mélenchon. She argued that physical pressure from political opponents should no longer be tolerated in public spaces.
Le Pen calls for Mélenchon to stop supporter intimidation
“I knew he would be there before me, so I suspected there would still be his militants hanging around,” Marine Le Pen told reporters, expressing concern that Jean-Luc Mélenchon lacked the authority to enforce democratic standards among his own followers.
According to reporting from Orange Actualités, Le Pen subsequently called on Mélenchon to instruct his supporters to cease intimidation tactics against rival candidates. She asserted that supporters of other political figures, such as Bruno Retailleau, Raphaël Glucksmann, or Teddy Riner, do not actively disrupt campaign events on markets or trade show floors.
She added that during the previous legislative elections, she had to pull her own candidates off the campaign trail shortly before the second round due to mounting violence from the extreme left.
Questions about Le Pen at the Made in France exhibition
Why was Marine Le Pen at the Made in France exhibition?
She visited the event on Friday, November 13, 2026, at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris to present her campaign proposals regarding consumer purchasing power and national priority in public procurement.
Who organized the protests against the candidate?
The protests involved dozens of high school students, many of them minors from suburban schools, alongside supporters of La France Insoumise who chanted slogans and directed insults at the Rassemblement National leader.
What specific demand did Le Pen make following the incident?
Le Pen publicly demanded that Jean-Luc Mélenchon instruct his militants to stop intimidating, jostling, and insulting rival candidates during their campaign outings.
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