How to reconcile the program of the National Rally (RN), its electoral interests and the respect due to its constituents? Lepenist deputy from Vaucluse, Joris Hébrard obviously did not find the meeting point. Friday March 17, he inaugurated the new mosque of Pontet, a city of which he was elected mayor in 2014 then 2020, which Marine Le Pen sharply reproached him for.
At his side that day, representatives of the large Turkish community in the city and those of Ditib (Diyanet Isleri Türk Islam Birligi, or union of Turkish-Islamic cultural affairs), French branch of Diyanet, the ministry of religious affairs from Ankara. Against the backdrop of French and Turkish flags, Joris Hébrard cuts the cord and delivers a speech. The scene is commonplace in France; less when it involves an RN deputy, rarely delighted by the construction of new mosques, especially when they are supported by a foreign power.
Joris Hébrard did not advertise this local event, but the Franco-Turkish cultural association of Avignon did, by publishing photos of this inauguration on Facebook. The photos were spotted by local activists from Reconquête!, Eric Zemmour’s party, and actively relayed until they landed in an article in the Point, Wednesday, March 22. Asked on the sidelines of a press conference on Emmanuel Macron’s interview, Marine Le Pen had a cold response: “I didn’t know at all. It is a personal initiative of this member that I disapprove of. Very clearly. » As for possible internal sanctions, the leader of the RN deputies relativized: “ It’s like with the tax authorities: there is room for error. But it’s once. »
A significant community in the constituency
This is not the first time that the RN group in the National Assembly has been embarrassed by its deputy from Vaucluse. At the beginning of the year, Joris Hébrard had to part with his parliamentary attaché, whose Release had denounced acquaintances with white supremacists or negationists.
But Joris Hébrard is also a model student of “local implantation” on which the RN continues to stumble. Elected with seven votes in advance in 2014 thanks to a triangular vote, he was reappointed in the first round with 57% of the votes in 2020. He has also been a departmental councilor since 2015, and elected deputy in a constituency dominated by Avignon.
Can such a success go without taking care of the relations with the local communities? “The Pontesians of Turkish origin are numerous [1 500, soit 10 % de la population, selon l’estimation du précédent maire en 2009], and very present in the Vaucluse. They are 6,000 in the constituency, assures Xavier Magnin, chief of staff to the mayor of Pontet and parliamentary assistant to Joris Hébrard. Turks, we see a lot of them in the town hall, they are business leaders, traders, they don’t all have kebabs! Seen from Paris, we seem to be making a pact with an evil power. But they are not Islamists, not bearded men. »
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