EDITORIAL. Beyond the legislative elections, the strategy of Marine Le Pen and the RN to arrive at the Élysée in three years

Marine Le Pen is aiming for a presidential victory in 2027. The legislative elections of June 30 and July 7 are, for the far-right party, only stages to access supreme power in 2027.

Ten days before the first round, the RN is in a position of strength, Wednesday June 19 for the legislative elections, but Marine Le Pen already has the presidential election in mind. In his eyes, Jordan Bardella at Matignon is only a step, almost a stepping stone that should help him access supreme power in three years. The legislative campaign serves as a test. Marine Le Pen is very close to her young protégé and encourages him to push back or bury certain promises as the election approaches to confuse the issue. She has bitter memories of the between two rounds of the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, when her proposals were dissected by the media, and the lack of credibility of her program, particularly economic, came to light.

As head of government, could Jordan Bardella implement this entire program? There, Marine Le Pen has a ready-made pretext, which she began to evoke: it is cohabitation which would not allow the extreme right to act as it pleases. Hence the need to elect her to the Élysée in three years. A completely false argument. During periods of cohabitation, except in matters of defense and foreign policy, the President of the Republic has no say and a Prime Minister has a free hand to govern. Lionel Jospin showed this during five years under the mandate of Jacques Chirac. The only real obstacle to the implementation of the RN program is rather the rule of law, the Constitution, which prohibits, for example, discriminatory measures of “national preference”. But here too, Marine Le Pen wants to use this argument for the presidential election since it is from the Élysée that she could initiate revisions of the fundamental law.

By 2027, in the event of a victory for the RN in the legislative elections, Marine Le Pen wants to continue to chair the group of RN deputies. In his entourage, some encourage him to aim for the more strategic position of presidency of the National Assembly. From the perch, Marine Le Pen could assume the posture of arbiter, above the fray of a boiling Assembly, and enjoy the prestige of the function by traveling abroad and receiving international dignitaries. A comfortable position to prepare for the presidential election. Some heavyweights of the majority think that if Emmanuel Macron has decided to dissolve at the risk of cohabitation with Jordan Bardella in 2024, it is because he wants at all costs to avoid a transfer of power with Marine Le Pen in 2027. He took the risk of doing both to himself.