One month before the European elections, Marion Maréchal, head of the list of the far-right Reconquest! for the vote, revealed, Tuesday May 7, the names of his eighty running mates. Among them are, unsurprisingly, the president and founder of the party, Eric Zemmour, at the bottom of the list, the former number two of the Republicans (LR) Guillaume Peltier, the advisor and companion of Eric Zemmour Sarah Knafo (whose investiture had already been announced), as well as outgoing MEP and former vice-president of the National Rally (RN) Nicolas Bay.
Fifth position is occupied by the president of the Conservative Movement (formerly Common Sens), Laurence Trochu. Stanislas Rigault, president of the Reconquête! youth movement, called Generation Z, occupies sixth place, followed by Agnès Marion, very close to Marion Maréchal who was regional advisor in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and Jean Messiha, enarque and figure far-right media.
Nice municipal councilor Philippe Vardon, former member of the Union Defense Group (GUD) and leader of identity youth, is in tenth place, followed by Normandy regional councilor Eve Froger, then identity activist turned movement executive Damien Rieu, as well as as a mathematics teacher, Séverine Duminy, or even the mayor of Cogolin Marc-Etienne Lansade in 14th position.
Eric Zemmour occupies the 80th position, while the last place was reserved for Evelyne Reybert, the mother of Julien Vinson, murdered during an attack in April 2020 in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) “by a Sudanese refugee”, recalled Marion Maréchal.
Divisions on the strategy to adopt against the RN
The list of the far-right party is currently receiving 5.5% of voting intentions, according to the fourth wave of the electoral survey carried out by Ipsos, in partnership with the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po (Cevipof ), the Montaigne Institute, the Jean Jaurès Foundation and Le Monde.
Above all, it is very far behind the list of the National Rally, carried by Jordan Bardella. A subject of strategic divergence between Zemmourists and Marionists within the party for several weeks: the former advocate attacking head-on the far-right candidate who brings together nearly a third of the voting intentions, while the seconds, like Marion Maréchal, prefer to show a certain leniency for Mr. Bardella, not wishing to create division within the nationalist camp.
“I am happy to be on this list to show that I support it with all my strength,” Eric Zemmour wanted to convince Tuesday. “All of us are behind [Marion Maréchal], with her, for her,” added the one who found himself in fourth position during the first round of the 2022 presidential election.