Leaving the EU and organising a Frexit referendum “is our only route to salvation,” Mr Philippot, the head of the newly launched Les Patriotes (The Patriots) movement, told a crowd of supporters at the party’s first congress in the northern French town of Arras.
He said: “We cannot continue telling our fellow compatriots that reforming Europe will solve France’s problems, that we can make do with the euro or with Schengen.”
Mr Philippot quit the Front National party last September over Mrs Le Pen’s decision to tone down her anti-Europe rhetoric following her crushing election defeat against president Emmanuel Macron last spring.
He also accused the FN of taking a “terrifying backward slide to its old demons,” sparking outage among Le Pen loyalists.
He said: “Patriotism is the future. Patriotism stands for peace and unity, Patriotism is the only thing that can reconcile what remains of the left and what remains of the right.
“Their love for France is the one thing [the French left and right] have in common.”
The hardline conservative added extremist parties were a “dead end,” before slamming his opponents.
Mr Philippot said Emmanuel Macron’s ruling La République en Marche (La REM) party was a “big democratic marshmallow,” – a possible reference to the party’s alleged lack of substance –, adding the centre-right Les Républicains party was “more divided than ever” and that the FN was stuck in a rut and “pathetic”.
Mrs Le Pen ex-adviser also weighed in on the migrant crisis, saying that mass immigration “has to stop” because “it is sucking the country dry”.
He also said that dual citizens who had fled to Iraq or Syria to join the ranks of the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) should be stripped of their French nationality.
Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, for his part, sent his French counterpart a video message wishing him “bonne chance” for his new role as the leader of Les Patriotes ahead of the party’s first congress, before urging him to “be patient” and to “never doubt” his ability to succeed.