in the dark about its program, the National Rally intends to “surf the populist wave”

2023-11-24 06:45:05
The president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), November 17, 2023. JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP

Jordan Bardella “feels the wave rising” with a view to the European elections in June 2024. Certainly, Nicolas Sarkozy used the same expression in April 2012, ten days before being beaten in the first round of the presidential election by François Hollande. But this time, everything gives hope to the president of the National Rally (RN) that he can “surfing this populist wave, which is arriving in France a few years late” and which he thinks will overthrow “the management presidency of Emmanuel Macron [lors de la présidentielle de 2027]as Donald Trump overthrew that of Barack Obama [en 2016] ».

At the end of September, he predicted a score of 30% for his training in the European elections, five points above the most optimistic polls. The latest surveys bring it closer to a bar that the RN has never crossed in a national election – excluding the second round. The party’s record dates back to 2015, during the regional elections (27.1%) organized a month after the November attacks in Paris.

For the June election, the head of the far-right party list is counting on the dynamics of the useful vote in the final straight of the campaign to fulfill a triple objective: regain the first place obtained in 2019, by once again ahead Emmanuel Macron’s camp; obtain a score that stands out; and permanently weaken its direct competitors, Reconquest! and Les Républicains, by bringing their lists below the fateful 5% mark.

In recent weeks, leaders of the flame party have been traveling through their federation to explain the fundamentals of the functioning of the European Union (EU), described as being taken by imperialist madness. The party still fears the weak mobilization of its popular electorate on voting day, which is why it repeats the voting date on every occasion – the only message appearing on Jordan Bardella’s first campaign poster. The heart of his program for Europe is much more vague.

The RN finds other sources of optimism in the electoral results abroad, which confirm, according to Marine Le Pen, “the growing attachment to the defense of national identities”. Flying to the aid of victory, she welcomed the unexpected resurrection of her old ally Geert Wilders. His PVV (Party for Freedom) formation, fundamentally Islamophobic, Euro-skeptical and economically liberal, came first in the legislative elections in the Netherlands on Wednesday November 22.

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