French Presidential | On the right, the “war of three” is increasing in intensity

(Paris) Hit by a wave of departures, the leader of the National Rally Marine Le Pen is going through a difficult period in her presidential campaign, threatened, like Valérie Pécresse, by Éric Zemmour who is garnering support.

And things accelerated further on Wednesday evening when Marine Le Pen was the guest of the “mission to convince” program on LCI: after being suspended for “sabotage” by the RN, one of the leaders of the Nicolas Bay party formalized its rallying to the rival candidacy of Éric Zemmour.

He explained to Figaro to commit “fully” to the far-right candidate, because, according to him, “by constantly seeking to appease the moral left”, “we are making a political error, but also a tactical one” and the candidacy of Marine Le Pen arouses henceforth “a certain indifference”.

The day before his departure, Nicolas Bay, member of the executive office (management), had been suspended from his duties by the RN, accused of “sabotage” by the party for the benefit of Éric Zemmour, which he refutes.

Asked Wednesday evening in “C à vous” on France 5, Éric Zemmour assured that Mr. Bay had “never transmitted anything to him”. For him, these rallyings occur, because M^me Le Pen “has ostracized all these people all these years” and that they were not in agreement “with his political line, it is quite noble”.

Opposite, the RN tries to unite. “We are united around Marine Le Pen. Shaking a tree so that the rotten fruits fall is ultimately always a good thing, it regenerates vitality, ”said RMC Laurent Jacobelli, campaign spokesperson for the candidate.

“Bleeding”

The president of RN Jordan Bardella, meanwhile, minimized the departures, refusing to speak of “bleeding” on France Inter and assuring that it was only “about ten” people out of a thousand elected .

Three MEPs – Jérôme Rivière, Gilbert Collard and Maxette Pirbakas – have already joined the candidate Reconquête!, followed by the only senator RN Stéphane Ravier, as well as several regional advisers.

The question of defectors also agitates the LR candidate Valérie Pécresse who, after a difficult week between unfriendly confidences from Nicolas Sarkozy and a rally deemed failed, now finds herself in a pocket handkerchief in the polls with Éric Zemmour and Marine le Pen.

M^me Pécresse is caught in a pincer movement between, on the one hand, two powerful far-right rivals who, between them, represent almost a third of the voting intentions, and the moderate right, of which certain senior officials such as Eric Woerth have joined the Macron camp. .

Less than two months from the first round of April 10, several candidates are still far from the 500 sponsorships of elected officials essential to gather until March 4 to be on the starting line.

If Valérie Pécresse, Emmanuel Macron, the socialist Anne Hidalgo and the candidate of LO Nathalie Arthaud have already passed the course, candidates in good place in the polls are still far from the mark, like the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon (332), Marine Le Pen (331) or Éric Zemmour (250).

“Useful vote”

On the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the best placed in the polls, has in any case received the support of the former socialist presidential candidate, Ségolène Royal, for whom “it is obvious that the useful vote on the left, c is Jean-Luc Mélenchon […] He’s the strongest.”

The rebellious leader thanked him “for his rallying words”. “His merit is all the more respectable, because I know that his support is not a rallying,” he added.

In the Socialist Party, the tone is less friendly. “And to think that @RoyalSegolene advocated FRA-TER-NI-TE and protested against the fact that women are always asked to give way to men! “Tackled Senator Rachid Temal.

Still on the left, LFI deputy Adrien Quatennens called on the communist Fabien Roussel, who gathered his troops in a rally in Montreuil (Seine–Saint-Denis) on Wednesday evening, to join forces.

As an echo, the PCF candidate has calmed things down with La France insoumise and the environmentalists assuring that he was “above all not” aiming to “take away votes” from them.

On the contrary, he wanted to “add, strengthen the left so that it is again in the majority, a sincere, authentic, honest left, a left that does not use the language of wood, which will not betray”.

As for Emmanuel Macron, still not in the arena, he continues to devote himself to his international agenda with, in addition to Ukraine, a mini-summit in Paris on Wednesday evening, against a backdrop of the expected withdrawal of French forces from Mali. .

Taken to task in the Senate by the opposition which calls on the president to come out of the woods, the spokesman of the government Gabriel Attal retorted: ” Suffer that we are concentrated on these deadlines there rather than on the presidential campaign “.