2024-03-03 15:57:03
The stage on which Jordan Bardella delivered his speech for the launch of the National Rally campaign for the 2024 European elections, in Marseille, Sunday March 3, 2024. CYRIL BITTON / DIVERGENCE POUR “LE MONDE”
On the outskirts of the Stade-Vélodrome and in front of 5,000 people, Jordan Bardella launched, Sunday March 3 in the afternoon, in Marseille, the campaign for the European elections of the National Rally (RN) with a giant meeting to give substance to a dynamic so far promising in the polls for the far-right party.
In his speech, the head of the RN list denounced “the great erasure of France” caused by the European Union and Emmanuel Macron, according to him. “A great erasure which results in the decline of France at home but also in Europe and in the world, in the decay of the State, in the dislocation of the country and above all in the disunity of the French”continued the far-right leader, aiming “the great eraser, Emmanuel Macron”.
Marine Le Pen also targeted the President of the Republic, castigating the “cynicism” and the “warlike postures” of a president “under siege”in the face of which the RN will propose a “thoughtful and resolute, national and popular transition”. She also confirmed her presence on the list of the far-right party, in last place, a candidacy “symbolic”.
More than half a thousand counter-protesters
The meeting billed for 400,000 euros – out of a total campaign budget of 4.32 million – was to be an opportunity to test a new slogan: “France is coming back”subtitle « L’Europe revit »a nod to Ronald Reagan’s formula « America is back ». It was already a reference to the 80s that the far-right party had used until then, “Can’t wait for June 9th”a pastiche of a slogan from Jacques Chirac’s RPR.
Flags and signs placed on the seats before the National Rally meeting, in Marseille, Sunday March 3, 2024. CYRIL BITTON / DIVERGENCE POUR “LE MONDE”
The meeting also aimed to concretize the “Bardella-mania” theorized by the RN strategists, according to them already verified by the 28% to 30% of votes promised by the polls, as much as its popularity, measured by the number of selfies claimed during his movements. The Marseille meeting inaugurated a series of around ten public meetings scheduled over the next three months, including one in Paris on May 1.
A counter-demonstration brought together 600 people in Marseille, who came “mark their opposition” I’m an RN. “This is not a happy time for left-wing struggles” but it’s important “to stand up to the RN”said a counter-protester, aged 25.
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Macronie must also launch its campaign
On Thursday, Jordan Bardella unveiled a “tricolor strategy” inspired by traffic lights, sorting out the community cooperation that it ” approved “ (for example Erasmus), those for which he demands “new conditions” (as for Schengen) and “red lines”, particularly immigration. Is this a disguised desire to leave the Union, as Macronie assures? “No “Frexit”, neither public nor hidden”he had sworn, telling himself not to be “against Europe” more “against the European Union”referred to a simple “model of political organization as there could be several”.
Ultra-favorite in the polls, with around ten points more than the Renaissance-MoDem-Horizons list, Jordan Bardella’s RN has a double objective: to come first and do at least as well as in the last European elections (23, 34%). Opposite, Macronie, stuck for several weeks at less than 20% voting intentions, and its candidate Valérie Hayer intend to respond to Mr. Bardella’s meeting from Saturday March 9, in Lille, with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and his full government to support the head of the list.
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