the strange campaign of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella who deserted the field

Neither meeting nor travel, the two headliners of the National Rally have disappeared from the campaign on the ground and only appear on TV or radio.

The campaign for the legislative elections is coming to an end soon, as there are only three days of fieldwork left for the candidates. Some are receiving support from their political family’s executives: Gabriel Attal is in Oise, Marine Tondelier in Ile-de-France, and Manuel Bompard is supporting the Insoumis in Rhône. On the other hand, there is no trace of Marine Le Pen or Jordan Bardella on the ground, to the point that one wonders what the two RN headliners are up to.

To find them, you have to listen to the radio and watch the television channels. Jordan Bardella was on France Bleu on Wednesday, July 3 at noon, in the evening, everyone is on a television news program, and these are the only appointments that appear on their official agendas. No travel, no meetings, since Sunday, June 30, Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen have spent a lot of time at their party headquarters.

But their agenda is “well filled” with a “succession of meetings”their entourage assures us, refusing to give us the identity of the interlocutors. The duo is preparing what will happen next in the event of an absolute majority, we are told. However, the party’s executives assure us that the composition of a possible government is ready. But what about the cabinets? Are there enough specialists and senior civil servants ready to work with RN ministers?

And then there is the substance, the measures to implement the three priorities: purchasing power, security and the fight against immigration. The program for the first months is currently being finalized with regulatory measures and bills to be presented this summer in an extraordinary session of the Assembly. “If voters vote for change, they will have change” and it must be seen quickly, insists a close friend of Marine Le Pen.

On the National Rally side, some candidates are also very little present on the ground. Left-wing candidates come to complain of being opposed to “ghost RN candidates” that they have never met on the ground. Several posters do not even show the photo of the person in the running, but only the portraits of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen. Very recently, there are nearly thirty RN candidates who have refused to participate in local debates on France Bleu. The party assures that it has not given any instructions and that each candidate is free to accept or refuse this format.

So why such reluctance? The question was put to RN president Jordan Bardella on Wednesday on France Bleu. Answer: “It has happened to me too that I have not responded to media requests because we have a lot of them. It is not because we are not a media beast who does ten TV shows a day that we are a bad person or that we are not sincere in our convictions”, argues the president of the RN. “Sometimes I do interviews with journalists who are not very comfortable either, it does not mean that the journalist is a bad person or that he is not competent. There is the media game and then there is the project.”

Another party official concedes: “There are quite a few who are not used to the media, and we haven’t had time to coach them in three weeks.” It must be said that some appearances have led to poor performances, like this RN candidate who talks about her “Jewish ophthalmologist”or this candidate who complains about the insecurity linked to a reception centre for foreign minors, while the centre has not yet opened.