In Gironde, MP Edwige Diaz, zealous VRP of the RN

June 19, 2023

If Marine Le Pen comes to power, “the Garonne will not overflow and there will be no rain of locusts!”, Ironically MP Edwige Diaz. In Gironde, it is as an “ant” that this rising star of the RN works to root the party to make his leader win.

Camped on a tractor during an agricultural festival, on a motorcycle during a gathering of bikers or “in immersion” with the police, wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest, the 35-year-old chosen one, always dressed to the nines, is displayed all over the place on social networks.

In this spring, the former assistant manager of a Bordeaux nightclub, victorious a year ago in the 11th district of the department, continues animal salon, slaughterhouse visit and miss competition – she was a candidate once – between two selfies of supporters.

This underserved wine-growing region of the Girondin “corridor of poverty” according to INSEE, a former stronghold of yellow vests, voted socialist for a long time before giving 58% of the votes to Marine Le Pen in the second round of the last presidential election.

“Here, the base is solid, the objective is not to convince more but to identify our voters”, affirms Ms. Diaz, appointed vice-president of the National Rally in the fall, in charge of its local establishment.

An “ant work” aimed at “opening the doors of the RN by membership and no longer by spite”, adds this zealous VRP of the party, blonde and divorced like her highest dignitary – she also shares her passion for cats.

Edwige Diaz is “in permanent campaign”, summarizes Florent Boudié, Renaissance deputy from the neighboring constituency. “She knows where, when and who to go to.”

For political scientist Jean Petaux, this “good student” who rose through the ranks was able to “stick to the sociology of the territory, like a chameleon”.

During an aperitif between hunters, she mentions her license, assuring them of her “unwavering support”. Refrain repeated elsewhere to butchers or lamprey fishermen, “all sacrificed on the altar of the claims of environmentalist small groups”.

On a normalization mission, Edwige Diaz exchanges pleasantries with the sub-prefect during a wine fair or knocks on the door of the prosecutor who confirms to receive her as “all elected by the people”.

“I have never seen anyone take so much interest in us since Robert Boulin (late deputy and mayor of Libourne, Editor’s note)”, adds a Girondin councilor whom she met with her advisers. “She doesn’t fuss, questions and notes everything. It’s a breath of fresh air.”

Seduction has its limits: when the parliamentarian mingles with a ministerial visit to the premises of Family Planning, vandalized by a far-right group, she is refused entry.

Alain Montangon, elected DVG – sovereignist tendency – who allied himself with Edwige Diaz in the departmental elections, rejects “the image of facho” which has pursued her since a video showed her making a “Nazi salute” during a Front National summer school in 2016.

The person concerned denies the gesture, explaining with annoyance that her outstretched arm showed the place where she had parked her car that day, and denies being “anti-Semitic” by arguing of her “three years of Hebrew” at the high school, baccalaureate notes in support.

Her “confidence” appeals to some, but others consider her activism “intrusive”, as during the May 8 commemorations in which she participated in six municipalities.

“It’s the cuckoo that lays in the nest of others,” laments the PS mayor of Porchères, David Redon, who did not want to appear with the parliamentarian during the ceremony. The latter immediately wrote to the sub-prefect and to the inhabitants to denounce a violation of the republican protocol.

“We are not going to roll out the red carpet for him”, plague Chantal Gantch, DVG mayor of Salignac-de-l’Isle, one of the few to “resist” openly.

Some criticize Edwige Diaz for stirring up rural anger, particularly around the collection of household waste. “It’s the strategy of the vomitorium”, denigrates the PS mayor of Saint-Savin, Alain Renard, re-elected against her in 2020.

“They say she’s nice but we don’t talk about the substance. What does she really produce? Nothing!”, stings the former MP for the constituency, Véronique Hammerer (Renaissance).

Omnipresent in Gironde, Edwige Diaz is discreet in the Assembly, according to observers. She retorts having followed the 175 hours of pension debates and voting more often than the average of her peers.

But the harshest criticism comes from ex-RN activists who accuse him of having reshuffled the lists “with authoritarianism” for the 2021 regionals.

The elected representative sweeps away “attempts to settle scores” at the origin, according to her, of a report from the Anticor association and an investigation into suspicions of fictitious employment in the European Parliament. And to ensure that she can “demonstrate every minute” of her former job as an attaché.