Xavier Bertrand, president of Les Républicains de la region Hauts-de-France, reacts on franceinfo on Wednesday to the reframing of Elisabeth Borne by Emmanuel Macron, in the middle of the Council of Ministers the day before.
“We must not forget the history of the National Front [sic]because when you forget the history of the National Front, you also trivialize the National Front.” Guest of franceinfo Wednesday May 31, the president Les Républicains (LR) of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand, reacts to the reframing of Élisabeth Borne by Emmanuel Macron, in the middle of the Council of Ministers the day before.
“We have to fight the far right, but we don’t fight it with the words of the 1990s and moral arguments, it doesn’t work anymore”launched the President of the Republic, two days after his Prime Minister estimated that the National Rally (RN) is the‘”Pétain’s heir”. Sunday, on Radio J, she also called not to “trivialize ideas” of a party that conveys a “dangerous ideology”.
“Marketing professionals” “disguised as a government party”
“Originally, it is a party which, very clearly, is xenophobic, it is racist, it is even anti-Semitic”charges Xavier Bertrand.
“They realized that being a racist, xenophobic party was not very selling (…) and in the end, the National Front, it became in a way marketing professionals who today disguise themselves as a party of government.”
Xavier-Bertrandat franceinfo
In the end, the former contender for the nomination of LR for the 2022 presidential election supports the arguments of Elisabeth Borne as much as those of Emmanuel Macron. “It’s true that we don’t fight them [le RN et ses dirigeants] that way”, he says. He cites the example of his region: “By getting people out of misery, by lowering the level of anger, we made them step back”he says.
For him, this episode reveals above all tensions between the two heads of the executive. “The least we can say is that things are not going well between them”he scoffs. “What is preparing is the famous end of the 100 days”he believes, in reference to the time that the head of state has given himself to relaunch his five-year term after the challenge to the pension reform. “I believe that the President of the Republic is getting everyone used to the fact that he will change Prime Minister”, he advances.