For their first parliamentary meetings, the deputies of the National Rally (RN) took off their ties but kept their costumes, which was not obvious in Cap d’Agde (Hérault). Even in the seaside resort which hosts the largest naturist village in the world, the far-right party is keen to display a serious face, in keeping with its ambition to embody more than an opposition. “Alternation is us”now claims the RN, where fountains of optimism spring.
Like onlookers enjoying the September sun and the atmosphere of Luna Park, the 89 deputies elected in June prolonged a summer of euphoria, before plunging back into the hard legislative work. Selfies with the headliners of the party shared on their social networks, group photo, tricolor scarf slung over the shoulder and reunion for a gala dinner. With their newly-created collaborators, European parliamentarians and local elected officials, there were 400 of them in a privatized wine estate on Saturday 17 September. Five years ago, one restaurant would have sufficed. Party and party again, the day before in a bar in Cap d’Agde: there was something of the integration weekend there.
Between the agapes agape, we revise the manual of the perfect deputy, the subtleties of the budget and the social security financing bill, the rudiments of economy and communication. Do not go to fault and let it be known in the constituency that in Paris, RN deputies are working. Judged to be little involved in the National Assembly, as in the constituency, the Macronist novices of 2017 are an anti-model.
“I have an extremely political group, enthuses Marine Le Pen. It is much more professional and serious than Emmanuel Macron’s group was five years ago, for a simple reason: our deputies were either political activists or local elected officials. » The less experienced keep their distance from journalists and are supervised by the group’s four vice-presidents, depending on their chosen region.
“We think we are the saving force”
Sunday morning, during an informal discussion with the press, Marine Le Pen stormed with optimism, for the future of the RN but also of France, “whose fundamentals are solid: they allow him to regain control of his destiny”. In the afternoon, in front of enamored supporters, she nevertheless holds a speech of black pessimism on the near future of the country, which Emmanuel Macron would plan to sprinkle “illegals, squatters and other crackers” pour “empty Paris” before the 2024 Olympics. Optimism is only valid for the party, with a horizon, according to her, “clear” : alternation.
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