This applies to elected officials as well as to the executives of political parties: on the right, the most effective social elevator consists in moving towards the far right. This is what Yohan Engel has just done, suddenly going from social media manager for the Les Républicains (LR) group at the National Assembly to director of communication for the National Rally (RN). The information, revealed by The Sunday newspaperhas been confirmed by the party of Jordan Bardella, according to whom Mr. Engel will guide the communication strategy of the RN – “ leaflets, posters, social networks…”.
On the side of the Republicans, it is explained that the departure does not constitute an irreplaceable loss of skills: entered as an intern in the service of Damien Abad, president of the group in the previous legislature, the 26-year-old young man had been established but recently invited to seek work elsewhere.
LR activist in the Yvelines, municipal councilor of the right-wing majority in Maurepas (2014-2020), he took care of the social networks of the urban community of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and, briefly, of Rachida Dati and the Yvelines departmental council. Before making a first visit to the National Assembly, then an abortive experience in the office of the president of the European Metropolis of Lille, Damien Castelain. He returned to the Palais-Bourbon in the luggage of Damien Abad, in March 2022.
RN Staff Difficulties
The recruitment to a strategic position of this inexperienced profile attests to the difficulties of personnel of the RN, which nourishes ambitions of victory in 2027 but still lacks experience and financial means.
The party of Jordan Bardella can however see the confirmation of the porosity, at the lower level, between the right LR and the RN, already noted in the recruitment of collaborators. Several parliamentary attachés who have worked for right-wing or center-right deputies have joined RN elected officials since the summer. It is also through Albane Duteurtre, deputy general secretary of the RN group, former parliamentary attaché and LR candidate in the municipal elections, that Mr. Engel was recruited.
Thus rub shoulders within the group of attachés from the Republican right and identity activists, such as Nina Smarandi, whose sulphurous profile was revealed Thursday, January 12 by Release. Parliamentary attaché to the RN deputy from Vaucluse, Joris Hébrard, the young woman poses in front of a Celtic cross flag, a neo-fascist symbol, performs the gestures of rallying white supremacists or has lunch with Holocaust denier Hervé Ryssen. Her private Instagram account, on which she hides nothing of her neo-fascist friendships, is followed by Jordan Bardella and a number of elected Lepenists. Friday, Joris Hébrard could not be reached and Renaud Labaye, secretary general of the group, said he was unable to intervene in the contract between the deputy and his collaborator.