2023-06-23 08:27:37
In June 2022, the National Rally made a sensational entry into the National Assembly, with the election of 89 deputies. But Marine Le Pen’s troops were ultimately rather discreet within the Hemicycle. As of last summer, the instruction had been given by the leader of the group: not to make waves, with a view to “demonizing” her party a little more.
A year later, the RN wishes to maintain this strategy of “normalization”, sometimes pushed to the point of caricature, while the government’s immigration text is looming, which must be presented in July to the Council of Ministers.
“We don’t want to oppose Macron in a stupid and mean way”
“We have fulfilled our objectives: to be in uncompromising opposition to Emmanuel Macron, while advancing our ideas. Our presence moves the lines, we are useful deputies, ”smiles Sébastien Chenu, RN deputy from the North and vice-president of the National Assembly. On the merits, the elected RN want to be “constructive” and did not hesitate to vote certain government measures on purchasing power, the nuclear recovery plan, or even the military programming law. According to a count made by the franceinfo site, the RN would have voted in favor of 42% of the 14 solemn votes on government bills (and against at 22%).
“We don’t want to oppose Macron in a stupid and mean way as LFI does. The French would not understand, defends Thomas Ménagé, RN deputy from Loiret. It’s true, we are a decisive auxiliary force. Without us, many majority, LR or Nupes votes would never have passed. It’s political pragmatism, we put into practice the new world of Macron, who wanted to take good ideas everywhere, but which he never put in place. Son the 1,913 votes counted by the datan site in the hemicycleelected RNs vote 35% like the Renaissance group, 36% like LFI, and 55% like Les Républicains.
But the balance sheet remains very meager for the training now led by Jordan Bardella. If the group, now made up of 88 elected officials*, votes with the left or the right, its opponents do not return the favor. No text was voted on during their parliamentary niche in January, the other political forces continuing to maintain the “cordon sanitaire”. A symbolic example of this isolation: the party was “excluded” from the cross-partisan censure motion carried by the Liot group last March, which almost brought down the government. “The French hate sectarianism and blocking behavior. We chose to be constructive, it disconcerts our opponents, but the polls prove us right, ”sweeps Sébastien Chenu.
On the rise despite the controversies
Because despite controversy, like that affecting the deputy Grégoire de Fournas, temporarily excluded in November, or that on “Russian interference”, several opinion polls seem to validate the strategy of the National Rally. According an Elabe poll published on Wednesday for BFMTV, 36% of French people believe that Marine Le Pen best embodies the opposition to Emmanuel Macron (+10 points since February), against 23% to Jean-Luc Mélenchon. And according to an Ifop survey published sunday in the JDDthe RN would be “dangerous for democracy” for 21% of those questioned, i.e. less than LFI (26%), and “capable of governing France” for 30% of people, far ahead of the rebellious (at 13%) .
This slow progression would explain, according to the members of the RN, the recent attacks of the macronie, like those of Elisabeth Borne at the end of May. “I do not believe in the normalization of RN at all. I think you shouldn’t trivialize your ideas, they’re always the same […] it is a dangerous ideology”, declared the Prime Minister, adding that the party was still “the heir of Pétain”. “These attacks force-feed us but no longer work. They are of such intellectual laziness that they do not attack us on the merits, defends Thomas Ménagé. This shows that we are winning the battle of ideas, with the credibility of what we have been saying for years, on social fraud, immigration…”
Immigration, precisely. Even on its favorite theme, the RN does not intend to vary its strategy in the months to come. And competition from the right, which has toughened up its rhetoric, is welcomed. “After having criticized us so much, LR took over our measures word for word. They finally bring us the stamp ”historic party of government”, it’s a bonus, ”boasts Thomas Ménagé. If the RN seems so in search of credibility, it is because in the polls, the French still have huge doubts about the skills of Marine Le Pen to one day lead the country. An elected RN shrugs his shoulders: “We broke all the ceilings in one year. We have four left to fly this one too.”
* In January, outgoing RN MP for Marne, Anne-Sophie Frigout, was beaten by Laure Miller (Renaissance) after the June ballot was invalidated due to irregularities.
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