In the aisles of the Sainte-Anne market in Guadeloupe, between the stands of vanilla syrup and palm trees, the slogans “racist outside” on one side, “Marine president” on the other, clash. Activists on both sides, a few onlookers and in the middle Marine Le Pen, an imperturbable smile.
Proof of the tension among passers-by, opinions are divided on the reception to be reserved for the far-right candidate. “She has the right, like everyone else, to go where she wants, to do what she wants. I am not against anyone, on the contrary”says one of them.
Conversely, a shopkeeper believes that Marine Le Pen “Is absolutely not welcome. We do not see what it is doing, we do not see why it has members. We do not understand. We are hostile. Me, I fired the journalists and all those who were there waiting. We don’t want that. We come to work. These people bring us nothing at all, except hatred”, she says angrily.
On the Sainte Anne market, the “Marine president” shouted by the activists mingle with the “racist outside” pic.twitter.com/OFk2056nYi
— Hadrian Bect (@HadrienBect) March 27, 2022
No matter the hostility, nobody takes it out on Marine Le Pen. Strong presence of gendarmes, one of the agents who protect the candidate even seizes a frying pan on which an activist hits. The candidate of the National Gathering, she carefully and ostensibly walks every aisle of the Sainte-Anne market. “We go all the way. We are not called Le Pen for nothing”, challenges the contender for the Élysée.
Epilogue of a trip that furiously recalls the heyday of the National Front, between exfiltration through the hotel car park, canceled interview, treasure hunt before ending up in the middle of a melon field. Marine Le Pen strives to minimize. “It’s not very serious. All that is not very serious! If the objective was to intimidate me, the objective is missed”.
>>> Presidential 2022: Marine Le Pen taken to task in Guadeloupe, she and her team file a complaint
The candidate directly implicated the Minister of the Interior. “But if he [Gérald Darmanin] was doing his job rather than campaigning, maybe we wouldn’t get into that kind of situation. When the state services are not doing their job, any group of ten people is capable of disrupting any movement of any presidential candidate.
A Marine Le Pen jostled two weeks before the first round, at the risk of undermining the self-proclaimed image of a candidate for appeasement.