On the outskirts of the Vélodrome stadium and in front of 5,000 people, Jordan Bardella launched the European election campaign of the National Rally (RN) on Sunday March 3 in the afternoon in Marseille with a giant meeting to give substance to a dynamic up to ‘here promising in the polls.
In his speech, the head of the RN list pointed out “the great erasure of France” caused by the European Union and Emmanuel Macron, according to him. “A great erasure which results in the decline of France at home but also in Europe and in the world, by the decay of the State, by the dislocation of the country and above all by the disunity of the French,” said continued the far-right leader, targeting “the great eraser, Emmanuel Macron.”
Marine Le Pen also targeted the President of the Republic by castigating the “cynicism” and the “warlike postures” of a president “in a state of siege”, facing whom the RN will propose a “thoughtful and resolute, national and popular transition “. She also confirmed her presence on the list of the far-right party, in last place, a “symbolic” candidacy.
More than half a thousand counter-protesters
The meeting billed at 400,000 euros – out of a total campaign budget of 4.32 million – was notably to be an opportunity to test a new slogan: “France returns”, subtitled “Europe revives”, wink. look at Ronald Reagan’s phrase “America is back”. It was already a reference to the 80s that the far-right party had used until then, “Vivement le 9 june”, a pastiche of a slogan of Jacques Chirac’s RPR.
The meeting also aimed to materialize the “Bardella-mania” theorized by the RN strategists, according to them already verified by the 28% to 30% of votes promised by the polls, as much as its popularity, measured by the number of selfies claimed during his movements. The Marseille meeting inaugurated a series of around ten public meetings scheduled over the next three months, including one in Paris on May 1.
A parallel counter-demonstration brought together 600 people in Marseille, who came to “mark their opposition” to the RN. “This is not a happy time for left-wing struggles” but it is important “to stand up to the RN,” said a 25-year-old counter-protester.
Macronie must also launch its campaign
On Thursday, Jordan Bardella unveiled a “three-color strategy” inspired by traffic lights, sorting out between the community cooperation that he “approves” (for example Erasmus), those for which he demands “new conditions” (like for Schengen ) and “red lines”, notably immigration. A disguised exit from the Union, as Macronie accuses? “No “Frexit”, neither public nor hidden”, he swore, saying he was not “against Europe” but “against the European Union”, referring to a simple “model of political organization as there could be more than one”.
Ultra-favorite in the polls with around ten points more than the Renaissance-MoDem-Horizons list, Jordan Bardella has a double objective: to come first and do at least as well as in the last European elections, 23.34%. Opposite, Macronie, stuck for several weeks below the 20% voting intention mark, and its candidate Valérie Hayer intend to respond to Jordan Bardella’s meeting from Saturday March 9, in Lille, with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and his full government to support the head of the list.
