This Tuesday noon, Marine Le Pen had summoned the press for a conference in the air, a bit high-sounding, of an introductory course in political science: “democracy and the exercise of power”. Appointment is given at the Hotel Normandy, in Vernon in the Eure, stronghold of the Yellow Vests movement, itself a symptom of this democratic crisis that the candidate of the National Rally intends to denounce and repair. “Our country is going through an unprecedented democratic crisis”, she warns behind her desk, underlining “a gap that is widening between citizens and their elected institutions”.
In addition to the observation of a mistrust of citizens who are increasingly turning away from the ballot box, Marine Le Pen denounces a “mistreatment” of the opposition, “the absence of real representativeness” of political forces and a public debate which would now escape the assemblies elected, again citing the Yellow Vests. “Apart from the RN, the political parties supposed to represent the people did not see this revolt of the France of the forgotten coming,” she claims.
Le Pen has come with its battery of programmatic measures to fill this growing chasm. It thus wishes to introduce proportional representation in legislative elections (for two-thirds of elected deputies), extend the possibilities of citizens’ initiative referendums, and set up a “revolutionary referendum” so that the people are consulted more, in particular to decide on the societal issues. “I intend to consult the only expert that Emmanuel Macron has never consulted: the people”, boasts the RN candidate, also affirming that the outgoing President has “remained completely inactive” on democratic issues during his five-year term. “Worse, he aggravated” the fracture, she accuses.
Long accused of being, by her project and her local practice of power, undemocratic, Marine Le Pen seeks here to reverse the accusation, assuring that it is she who would have the project most likely to fill the gaps in democracy. , facing an Emmanuel Macron put in the position of a scarecrow. Promised to be beyond reproach, Le Pen? Authoritarian in any case and not necessarily exemplary on the freedom of the press.
Asked about the ban on access for journalists from the show Daily at her HQ recently, the candidate replied that she was there “at [elle] », and that considering Daily as “an entertainment show”, she didn’t have to accept them. “Yes, yes, it’s me who decides,” she argued, to close her somewhat particular course on democracy.