“I say it again, I will never abandon the French”. Sunday April 24, a quarter of an hour after the announcement of the results of the second round of the presidential election, Marine Le Pen had already turned the page on her new defeat against Emmanuel Macron. In front of her supporters gathered at the Pavillon d’Armenonville, in Paris, the candidate of the National Rally (RN) set a new course: “Win the great legislative battle”.
>> Follow the latest information on the negotiations for the legislative elections
On the strength of the 7.5 points gained compared to 2017, i.e. 2.6 million additional votes, and the best score achieved by the far right in the second round of a presidential election under the Fifth Republic, Marine Le Pen is convinced that his party can surf on this electoral dynamic to garner a maximum of deputies during the legislative elections on 12th and 19th June next.
“We are in a very different situation this time around as we came out on top in 159 constituencies [à la présidentielle]compared to 45 in 2017″rejoices Gilles Pennelle, the national delegate for the animation of RN federations, who must be a candidate for the legislative elections in Brittany.
To prepare this “third round” of the presidential, party executives acted on the final strategy of the legislative elections on Tuesday, during of the meeting of the National Investiture Commission (CNI) of the party. “We don’t want any device deal and we won’t do a joint roster with Eric Zemmour. Our candidates will therefore be invested in or supported by the RN in all 577 constituencies.asserts to franceinfo Sébastien Chenu.
The RN deputy from the North remains despite everything being aware that it will be difficult to prevent Emmanuel Macron from regaining a majority in the National Assembly. “VSUnlike Jean-Luc Mélenchon who hammers everywhere that he can be Prime Minister, we are lucid, adds the RN spokesperson. We ask the French to vote for patriotic deputies who will protect them from the social damage wanted by Emmanuel Macron and to build a strong opposition throughout the five-year term.
“We know that we have many more winnable constituencies than in 2017 and we hope to be able to form at least a group of 15 elected in the Assembly.
Sébastien Chenu, spokesperson for the RNat franceinfo
To hope to double its contingent of deputies and appear as a credible opposition against Emmanuel Macron, the RN has therefore deliberately chosen not to seize the hand extended by Eric Zemmour and his call to create “a coalition of rights and patriots” with the RN, Debout la France or even certain elected LRs.
Marine Le Pen and the executives of her party did not at all appreciate the attacks of the ex-extreme right polemicist, on the evening of the second round. “This is the eighth time that defeat has struck Le Pen’s name”lamented Eric Zemmour, for whom “the announced revenge has come to an end”. What to destroy any possibility of discussion between the two camps and to increase the exasperation of the executives of the party.
“What Eric Zemmour said was a declaration of war. We can’t ally ourselves with people who spit on us and smear us all the time.”
Jean-Lin Lacapelle, RN MEPat franceinfo
“I believe that there would be no worse than an alliance with him to corner us. The French are fed up with the device wars and prefer the union of the patriotic people”, criticizes the RN MEP, Jean-Lin Lacapelle. If Marine Le Pen refuses to ally with Eric Zemmour to form a large nationalist bloc, it is also a question of image. The demonization put in place during the presidential campaign to stand out from the excesses of the former journalist is part of the candidate’s strategy for the legislative elections.
As for the supporters of Eric Zemmour, in difficulty after his 7.07% achieved in the first round of the presidential election, we do not understand this end of inadmissibility. For Gilbert Collard, former RN deputy from Gard who joined the Reconquest movement! few months ago“Marine Le Pen’s strategy is a mistake”. The MEP, who is still reluctant to stand in the Gard in June with the Zemmourist label, fears that his former party will “divides and condemns the camp of the patriots which does not need it”.
“Wherever Reconquest! will be able to present candidates, it will. But when we have an RN candidate in front, what will happen? Neither of the two will unfortunately be in the second round.
Gilbert Collard, MEP and honorary president of Reconquête!at franceinfo
For her part, Marine Le Pen announced that she would be a candidate in the 11th constituency of Pas-de-Calais, an electoral stronghold in which she had collected 58.60% of the votes in the second round in 2017. But the finalist of the presidential knows that she will need a large number of deputies at her side if she wants to continue to weigh in the national political debate. To do better than the eight parliamentarians (including a related RN) elected five years ago, the RN does not ultimately close the door to a few alliances with candidates who do not necessarily have the party label.
The spokesperson for the RN, Laurent Jacobelli, evokes “local agreements, on a case-by-case basis, with all those who want to join the union of patriots behind Marine Le Pen. There will be natural alliances in the second round”, he specifies. Backstage discussions also concern relatives of Eric Zemmour. According to RN executives interviewed by franceinfo, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, the party’s acting president, have agreed not to send “house candidates” to rare constituencies where supporters of Eric Zemmour wish to present themselves. Among the names of the potential candidates: Stanislas Rigault, the young president of the Generation Z movement or the former LR deputy Guillaume Peltier. “We said to ourselves that it would not be too difficult to work with these people for the legislative elections”concedes a tenor of the party.
These constituencies spared by the RN can be counted on the fingers of one hand for the moment, but they demonstrate Marine LePen’s desire to establish her leadership within the nationalist right in France. With, why not, the intention of running again for the presidency of 2027. “Marine Le Pen often says that the artichoke is eaten leaf after leaf. For the moment, she is in the fight for the legislative elections, and even if she does not forbid herself anything and she remains for me the best, she does not want not step over the hedges before the hour”, delays Sébastien Chenu. Will the artichoke strategy bear fruit?