Rue de l’Université runs parallel to the Seine. In front of number 126, Wednesday June 22, more than 80 deputies of the National Rally (RN) find themselves, feverish and on their thirty-one (the men wearing ties), in a joyful disorder between the media cameras. They face the Palais-Bourbon which they are preparing to invest as the first opposition group.
“It has been thirty years that we have been waiting to have representatives en masse in the Assemblyexalts the talkative Laure Lavalette, MP for Var. Hallelujah, people who vote for us are no longer considered sub-citizens! » Requested from all sides, Renaud Labaye, Marine Le Pen’s chief of staff and future secretary general of the group, passes and irons his file holder under his arm, with the impression of being “a bit of the “mono” of the camp”.
Suddenly, applause. The group gathers towards the entrance to the National Assembly, from which emerges Marine Le Pen, a purple suit and her eyes misty with emotion. The small disorderly crowd now forms a block. She advances towards the chief in a kind of respectful procession. Then, the newly elected cross the street that separates them from their new life, from their parliamentary chair, their tricolor scarf and their badge girded with the border of the French Republic, and all the respectability dedicated to the deputies of the nation. Another dimension.
On the threshold of the Palais-Bourbon, Marine Le Pen welcomes them. One by one, each comes to receive the anointing in the form of a « bravo », a warm embrace, a long embrace. They then join the main courtyard. The boss takes José Beaurain, the first blind deputy, by the arm to accompany him to the steps where the 89 elected officials will pose for the group photo. Again, they applaud their leader for a long time, who bows to them. Marine Le Pen will tweet the triumphant snapshot, with the slogan of Eric Zemmour, his far-right rival who has disappeared: “They didn’t know it was impossible, so they did it. »
“The counters are reset”
” It’s over there “then indicate the ushers and the administrators of the Assembly, posted at each corner of the corridors to guide the newcomers. “For us, it does not change anything, we are not going to treat them differently from others”confides one of them, in his stiffness of administrative neutrality.
The deputies stroll in the room of the lost steps, picked up by the journalists come to attend this strange morning. Firecracker blue suit, Frédéric Boccaletti, deputy of the Var, tries to dodge questions about his past – he was sentenced to six months in prison, in 2000, for violence with weapons: “The French are counting on us to defend them, we will assume these responsibilities. If the Purchasing Power Bill goes in the right direction, we will vote in favour. We are not sectarian. »
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