Jordan Bardella points to “the shadow of the government and Gérald Darmanin” behind the controversy

Guest of “Tomorrow Europe”, Monday, Jordan Bardella returned to the controversy surrounding a National Rally campaign poster.

“There is certainly, behind this desire to argue, the shadow of the government and of Gérald Darmanin,” underlined Monday June 3 on franceinfo the head of the National Rally list for the European elections Jordan Bardella, after the publication of an RN poster intended for the gendarmes and the military a few days before the European elections.

Published on Saturday on X by the RN account, the poster represents a person from behind, in uniform, accompanied by the comment: “Because I want the French to live in safety in a country where order is respected and where people do not risk their lives for a sideways glance, on June 9 I am voting for Jordan Bardella’s list.” The director of the national gendarmerie, General Christian Rodriguez, protested against this visual, considering that the RN’s message was “inadmissible” and that the far-right party teams seemed “ignore that military status prohibits this type of message”. “The gendarmes respect the duty of reserve in their functions, unlike you, who publicly take on a political movement in the middle of an official campaign”Jordan Bardella responded to him on the X network.

“I am extremely surprised and even a little shocked that the boss of the gendarmerie is going beyond his duty of reserve, in the name of the duty of reserve”he added on Monday, repeating that his “campaign visuals do not violate any law or regulation in force for an electoral campaign.” “He comes out of his reserve to take on a political leader in an inelegant, outrageous manner and with the desire to polemicize”judged the leader of the RN in the European elections.

Controversy “not very serious”, in the eyes of the one who is in the lead with 32, or even 33% of voting intentions in the June 9 ballot, according to the latest polls. “The duty of reserve applies to servants of the State, applies to gendarmes but gendarmes are not sub-citizens”he estimated. “The police have every right to express a political opinion in the voting booth”he insisted. “Political movements are making several dozen communications and visuals to present our measures to different professions, to call on these different professions to vote in the European elections,” he defended. “I had not yet been criticized for campaigning,” he quipped.

“The authority is the National Rally”, also recalled Jordan Bardella, specifying that “a lot” of soldiers vote for National Rally. The opportunity for the MEP to counterattack by accusing the candidate from the Renaissance list Grégory Allione (in 8th position), director of the National Higher School of Fire Officers, of having “used the internal channels of the Federation of Firefighters to advertise its list”.