Marion Maréchal, named head of the Reconquest list! for the European elections, is holding its first major campaign meeting in Paris on Sunday March 10, during which it seeks to remobilize Eric Zemmour’s electorate for the 2022 presidential election.
It is her own political survival that the former MP (2012-2017) from Vaucluse – then part of the National Front, chaired by her aunt Marine Le Pen – is playing, or even that of the Zemmourist movement if she fails to pass the 5 mark. % necessary to send elected officials to Strasbourg.
At the Dôme de Paris, a room of 5,000 supporters must reassure about the training capacity of Ms. Maréchal, credited with 4.5% of the votes in an Elabe poll published Saturday evening, within the margin of error of the election threshold . Sunday, it is a question of convincing Marshal of the “useful vote”, while Reconquest! reached an agreement last month with the Conservative group in Strasbourg, where the Polish PiS, in power between 2015 and 2023, and Fratelli d’Italia, the party of the head of the transalpine government, Giorgia Meloni, are based.
“Don’t skip! »
“Do you want an Islamized Europe or a Europe that is still European? » After the broadcast of a clip which notably showed Muslims praying – a scene copiously hissed by the public –, Marion Maréchal launched into a three-quarter-hour speech around “La France Proud” and the denunciation of “the dazzling advance (…) of Islamization” and “its consequences”.
Sharia law, Ramadan, forced marriages, but also “drag queen readings to our children in our libraries”: the candidate relied on Zemmourist fundamentals to relaunch a struggling campaign.
“Don’t skip! », Eric Zemmour had previously raised his voice at the start of the big rally, invited to give a historical-political presentation on Europe by summoning Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc or Napoleon, all against the backdrop of Mozart: “ This is beauty, this is good, this is Europe. »
Around the theme of “civilization”, number two on the list, Guillaume Peltier also wanted to dramatize the issue: “There are things more serious than purchasing power or global warming; the challenge is to save France from the great Islamic replacement. »
“The Lepeno-Bardellist “at the same time”, which says everything and its opposite”
“Our huge challenge is to speak to our voters in 2022,” summarizes a strategist, nostalgic for Eric Zemmour’s 7.07%. Problem: only half of them intend to remain loyal to Reconquest!, when 45% are preparing to vote for Jordan Bardella (RN), who is currently leading the race in the polls. “But we cannot only speak to those who want to vote for a guy who is today at 5-6% in the polls, when there is another who is at 30%,” now agree the executives of Reconquest!, convinced of the need to wage this double battle.
Faced with the polls, Nicolas Bay – himself a former Lepéniste – warned against any “useful vote”: “The RN came first in the European elections of 2014 and those of 2019. It did not have the slightest impact on European policies [and] it was only useful for one thing, the re-election of Emmanuel Macron. »
Ms. Maréchal, reluctant to attack her former party and its leader, with whom she maintains reputedly cordial relations, nevertheless sets out to find a “crest line”. “Marine, Jordan, I want to tell you that we are not enemies”, launched Marion Maréchal on Sunday towards Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Bardella, considering them “in a certain way, complementary” with She.
While Zemmourists and Lepénistes sit in two distinct far-right groups in the Strasbourg hemicycle, Marion Maréchal praised “this path that we will find to work together in the European Parliament”. “I want tomorrow we also find him in France,” she added, without specifying.
“In our spheres, it’s true that we prefer [Jordan] Bardella to Marine Le Pen. But their differences become unbearable and Bardella, at the slightest shock, folds, for example on the constitutionalization of abortion,” an influential Zemmourist annoys.
“Macron-Le Pen is the opposite of a duel: it’s a duo,” accuses Mr. Zemmour in the columns of the Journal du Dimanche (JDD), denouncing the ““at the same time” Lepeno-Bardellist” attitude. of the RN, “which says everything and its opposite”. The attacks are no less acidic towards Les Républicains: “Bellamy, it’s the tree on the right that hides the centrist forest,” quips Stanislas Rigault, the boss of the youth movement Reconquête!, Génération Z. Before to summarize: “LR betrayed for forty years of power, the RN does not even wait to be in power to betray. »
