A political sequence that comes at the worst time for the National Association. Following an arrest described as racist by one of its deputies, Grégoire de Fournas, Marine Le Pen’s party is facing criticism from its political opponents. Something that will have a very bad effect on the eve of the party’s congress that should probably incorporate Jordan Bardella.
“Slander, slander. There will always be some of that,” RN MP Thomas Ménagé shrieks with BFMTV.com. Before adding: “Of course it messes us up in the middle of the dynamic.”
“awkward” words
The elected representative of Loiret sums up the feeling on the part of the seats of the movement, 24 hours after a great mass at the Mutualité de Paris prepared for weeks. The parliamentary group has been in an uproar since one of its members launched “returning to Africa” during a question to the government of the rebel Carlos Martens Bilongo.
The deputy, black, challenged the executive about “the drama of illegal immigration”, evoking the fate of 234 migrants who are currently on an SOS Méditerranée ship looking for a port to dock.
Despite the support of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, the parliamentarian’s words remain in the throats of several RN deputies present at his side in the chamber. One points to the words “catastrophic”, another evokes a “clumsy” sentence.
“You can’t say things like that”
Grégoire de Fournas, assures him for his part that his statements have been distorted and explains that he targeted the “ship” of migrants. Without apologizing to his colleague, he said he was “sorry for the misunderstanding” caused by his comments in an email.
“Whatever the context, we can’t say things like that,” one party member still lamented.
It is that the strong sanction that this deputy runs, who could be temporarily excluded from the Palais-Bourbon, is very bad since the National Association tries to gain notoriety since the arrival of 89 deputies at the Palais-Bourbon last June. Saturday’s congress, 11 years after the arrival of Marine Le Pen at the head of the RN, was going to represent the symbol of that strategy.
“Obviously it comes at the worst time”
At just 27 years old, the face of Jordan Bardella, an ultrafavorite of this internal competition, embodies the line that the former presidential candidate has been trying to embody in recent years. His party seeks to soften his image by refining a demonization strategy, which began in 2011.
With some success: Marine Le Pen is considered the second favorite personality of the French, after former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, in an Elabe poll for the echoes.
“Obviously it happens at the worst time, but we have expressed a political opinion that is reminiscent of the immigration policy that we want to carry out,” assumes Deputy RN José Gonzales.
“Lack of Humanity”
The movement considers that it has managed in recent months to shake off the suspicions of racism that have trapped it for years. Its co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, for his part, has been convicted more than 25 times for advocating war crimes, incitement to hatred and discrimination, anti-Semitism or even public insults.
Therefore, Marine Le Pen has no doubts about demolishing the work done on her image with selfies and market tours during the last presidential campaign.
The former candidate also judges to have managed to cross the armor. During a meeting in Reims, last February, he had thus spoken of his family history, “a little special” and “of the tests” that marked his life, thus playing the card of trust and closeness with the French. This controversy should not harm this strategy.
“We don’t express ourselves like that about human beings, especially in the National Assembly,” lamented David Rachline, one of those very close to Marine Le Pen, pointing out “the lack of humanity” of the Grégoire de Fournas envelope.
“A Good Great Political Manipulation”
His entourage also wants to fire Renaissance and La France insoumise back to back, who expressed their outrage: Gérald Darmanin even judged that “the question of the resignation” of the incriminated deputy “came up” this Friday morning on BFMTV.
“On the one hand we have LFI playing the agitprop card and on the other Macronie playing frightened virgins. We are facing a great political manipulation good to get dirty the day before a big political event”, Judge Philippe Ballard, MP and spokesman for the movement.
Will the defense of the party be enough when a close friend of Marine Le Pen judges that the RN group “has committed no faults” since its arrival in force at the National Assembly? The images of the Mutualité, for a long time a mecca of meetings on the left, will in any case probably be less beautiful than expected.
Source: BFM TV
