EDITORIAL. Speaking of the RN “heir to Pétain”, did Elisabeth Borne make a mistake?

Historically, no: it is not a mistake. Elisabeth Borne is absolutely right, the RN is good “the heir” of Pétainism. The National Front was even founded in 1972 by representatives of all the currents of the Collaboration… Pierre Bousquet, Victor Barthélémy, André Dufraisse, François Brigneau or Roland Gaucher, these names, and many others, do not say nothing to the youngest.All of them had enlisted during the war alongside Jacques Doriot, Marcel Déat, in the Militia of Darnand and even, for several of them, in the Waffen SS.

>> Comments by Elisabeth Borne on the RN: “We do not fight the far right with the words of the 90s”, affirms Emmanuel Macron in the Council of Ministers

This past was assumed and defended by the FN until 2011. At the time, succeeding her father, Marine Le Pen even proudly proclaimed that she was taking “all the story” And “all the heritage of the FN“. She only began to break away from it, little by little, in 2015, with the exclusion of Jean-Marie Le Pen. But apart from her late condemnation of her father’s anti-Semitic remarks, she never publicly denounced the historical and political past of his party.

The Head of State fired against his camp

However, Emmanuel Macron says that “against the far right, moral arguments don’t work anymore“. And it is true that this is not enough. The electoral progress of the far right over the past 20 years demonstrates this. It is therefore in the field of competence, of “efficiency” that Emmanuel Macron wants to carry the This is why, unlike Jacques Chirac in 2002, he agreed to confront the far right during the televised debates of 2017 and 2022, both times successfully: Marine Le Pen’s shortcomings had appeared to the general dramatically!

Nevertheless, by reframing Elisabeth Borne at the Council of Ministers, the Head of State fired against his camp. Firstly because he gave the point to Marine Le Pen who had been indignant for 24 hours at the exit of Elisabeth Borne. And then because fighting the RN on the ground of competence does not prevent recalling the history and the ideological specificity of this party. Finally, because what is certain is that seeing the executive couple publicly tear each other apart over the right method to fight against the far right is not the best way to make it back down.