what strategy for Marine le Pen, who says she will “not help put out the fire”?

Don’t count on her to play firefighters! “I will not participate in putting out the fire” of the challenge said Marine Le Pen, Tuesday, March 21. “To put out the fire“, the image is not very well chosen when, precisely, the anger has been reflected for a few days by garbage cans or even urban equipment or burnt cars.

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So beware, for the far-right leader, the only arsonist is Emmanuel Macron: “He’s the only one who has the keys to a political crisis he created himself“, she says.

But let’s say that this awkwardness of language also illustrates the double discourse of the RN. On the one hand, the National Rally keeps a low profile and affects a wise profile. Marine Le Pen criticizes the executive for its lack of “empathy” for the French and she accuses Emmanuel Macron of being a source of disorder. And then on the other, she therefore admits that the social inferno in progress is a spectacle that does not displease her.

The RN played absolutely no role

So don’t want”to put out the fire“, is this really the attitude of someone who claims to embody an alternative government and who already sees himself at the gates of the Elysée? Basically, as often, during a social conflict, the far right tries to be “at the same time“on the side of those who protest, and on the side of order when the protest escalates.

Marine Le Pen still hopes to be the big winner of the social crisis. It is possible, but it is not automatic. Because since the start of the conflict over pensions, a face-to-face has taken place in the Assembly between the majority and the Nupes, and in the street between the executive and the unions. In both cases, the RN played absolutely no role. Barely figurative. And when a motion of censure narrowly failed to bring down the government, it was not his, very largely rejected.

On the contrary, the RN deputies had to hide their vote among others, behind a cross-party motion that they were not even authorized to sign. Proof that Marine Le Pen is not yet a credible alternative, and that she remains rather a burden for the other oppositions.