No question for Marine Le Pen of leaving Emmanuel Macron the monopoly of media coverage of the campaign, Saturday April 16: after a tour in the south of the country, which is largely acquired by her, the candidate of the National Rally added in extremis a trip to Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre, in Eure-et-Loir, a few hours before the first big meeting of Emmanuel Macron, in Marseille.
“I don’t choose the towns I come to based on the results I’ve had there, but I remind you that I came out on top in 20,000 municipalities out of 34,000, so it’s certain that I can come across towns where I got good scores”, she said with a smile to justify the choice of her trip. More than 37% of the voters of Saint-Rémy-Sur-Avre, or 657 inhabitants, placed Marine Le Pen in the lead in their commune during the first round.
While demonstrations against the far right on Saturday and multiple forums in the media call for a vote for Emmanuel Macron, “this brutal agitation that we witness between the two towers” is “quite disrespectful of democracy”also said Mr.me The pen. According to her, the “system is worried because it sees that the people want to regain power”.
“I am not obtuse”
The candidate also returned to her exchange with an elderly lady wearing the veil, during a trip to the streets of Pertuis, in the Vaucluse, on Friday. “I know very well that there are older women who put it on because for them it corresponds to a moment in their life. (…). But the fact remains that there are thousands of women in France who are forced to put on this veil because if they don’t put it on, they are threatened, they are isolated, they are suspected.she said to defend her proposal to ban the veil in public space.
“These are problems that are complex problems. I’m perfectly aware of that, I’m not obtuse.”then commented Marine Le Pen in an attempt to temper the debate on this specific point of his program. “When I say that I want a law to be passed, there will be debates in the National Assembly anyway”specified the deputy of Pas-de-Calais, who insisted on the fact that “Thanks to the citizens’ initiative referendum, 500,000 citizens can still ask the French people to vote on the repeal of a law they don’t like. I cannot do more democratic than this operation. »
With Robert Ménard, “there is no discomfort”
Marine Le Pen later assured that“there is no discomfort” with the mayor of Béziers, Robert Ménard, who stepped back from Marine Le Pen’s campaign until the second round of the presidential election. This close to Mme Le Pen announced on Friday that he would vote on April 24 in his favor despite his “disagreements” and would no longer speak by the second round.
Friday night, “I had Robert on the phone, who told me that he supported me without any difficulty (…) but that he wanted it to be the campaign spokespersons who could benefit from the time” of speech being reserved for him, declared Mme The pen. “I didn’t ask him” to step back, she said.
Mr. Ménard said Friday that he did not rally Emmanuel Macron. He says he agrees with the president-candidate on the subjects of vaccination against Covid-19 and international politics, but not on those of immigration and security. The former president of Reporters Without Borders recently showed differences with Marine Le Pen, for example on her plan to ban the veil in public spaces. ” It is a mistake “ et “not possible to implement”according to him.