Was Marine Le Pen crying after losing the French elections?

A viral image has been circulating on the Internet showing far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen crying after suffering another embarrassing defeat, after her political party, the National Rally (RN), failed to secure a majority in the second round despite a lead in the first. The election was won by the left-wing New Popular Front, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Formerly known as the National Front, the RN made significant gains in last month’s European elections, sparking a gamble by French President Emmanuel Macron in the form of early elections that he hoped would see the electorate block the rise of the far right in the country.

And it worked spectacularly – although probably not in the way Macron had anticipated.

Exit polls project a victory for the New Popular Front, a coalition including the far-left France Insoumise and the Socialist, Green and Communist parties, with the NFP leading with around 182 seats, Macron’s centrist Ensemble in second with 163 seats, and the RN falling to third with a possible 143 seats.

Although no party or group won the 289 seats needed to form a majority, France now faces a parliament without an absolute majority, with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal saying he would present his resignation to Macron.

RN president and leader Jordan Bardella has since complained that France had been “thrown into the hands of the far left” and that Macron had “pushed the country towards uncertainty and instability”.

Le Pen, for her part, insisted that her party’s victory “was only delayed.”

She did not, however, burst into tears over the result, as some memes on Twitter/X suggested:

In fact, the images and videos circulating show Le Pen in tears. with laughteras shown in an excerpt from 2017 where the French politician spoke on Europe 1 radio and reacted to the impressions of comedian Nicolas Canteloup.

A YouTube video description of one moment notes that Le Pen “laughed out loud” at the impersonations – particularly that of journalist Jean-Jacques Boudin.

When Marine Le Pen would cry with laughter at Nicolas Canteloup’s imitationswww.youtube.com

Sorry to disappoint you.

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