On May 22, 2002, Marine Le Pen clashed with Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the “Vive la politique” set of France 3. She accused the socialist, pointing at him, of using the language of wood and of lacking honesty. ” Me ? Me ! But who is she? », screams the future boss of the Left Party. The same shock is playing out today, at a distance, between the deputy of Pas-de-Calais, three times candidate in the presidential election, and the leader of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes). The first pretends to fade away, the second strives to impose itself.
Thursday May 26, in a bar in Blangy-sur-Bresle (Seine-Maritime), Marine Le Pen insists that she wants “tell people the truth”. She accuses the leader of the “rebellious” of uttering “a huge lie” on its chances of winning a majority of seats in the Assembly. And explains his own withdrawal from the leadership of the National Rally (RN). “I have been at the head of this movement for ten years.she said to Monde. And I’ve been an eminent member of it for almost twenty years… no, twenty years ago. »
A page turned in the middle of the legislative campaign, while Marine Le Pen reached 41.5% of the presidential vote, a record. This score, she argues, “allows you to project” and create a “very different state of mind” of 2017. Credited with 21% of voting intentions according to Ipsos, the RN could obtain 20 to 45 seats and form a group in the Assembly, a first since the wave of 35 Frontist deputies in 1986.
Modest ambitions
And yet, the far-right opponent of Emmanuel Macron displays modest ambitions. On May 10, she surprised her troops, on TF1, by admitting to losing in advance, in the name of the “majority fact” of the Ve Republic, which would immediately give victory to the presidential party. In order not to disappoint, it barely touches the lens of about fifteen deputies. Over the days, it increases the gauge, up to 60 seats, to be able to seize the Constitutional Council. Then “un maximum”according to the expression used by the RN.
The claimed champion of the ” proximity “ travels as little outside its lands of Hauts-de-France, the region where it obtained its best score (52.1%). The Hénin-Beaumont clan, which appoints the deputy Bruno Bilde and the mayor of Hénin-Beaumont, Steeve Briois, keeps control of its movements in the 11e constituency of Pas-de-Calais, won in 2017 with nearly 60% of the vote. The team keeps the press at a distance, locks the agenda. “We want her to be able to talk to people without cameras”, justifies Bilde. Butme Le Pen appears too little on the television channels to the taste of some 560 candidates, who are snapping up a visit from « Marine »with a worried eye on the countdown… “When Marine is less there, we complain that she is no longer there. It is Atlas who carries the world on his back »sighs Jean-Philippe Tanguy, candidate in the Somme.
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