Florian Philippot, figure of the anti-pass protests and former right-hand man of Marine Le Pen, announced on Friday that he was withdrawing his presidential candidacy, having obtained only one sponsorship to date, but that he was continuing to to work “for the defeat” of Emmanuel Macron.
“Faced with a totally locked and flawed sponsorship system”, the president of the small movement Les Patriotes “takes note” in a press release of “the impossibility of going to the end of his candidacy for the presidential election announced last July, the day after President Macron’s terrible intervention on the “sanitary pass””.
Solitary sponsorship
At the last score Thursday of the Constitutional Council, Florian Philippot had obtained only one sponsorship, that of Nadine Bienfait-Loisel, mayor of Yville-sur-Seine (Seine-Maritime), who like him denounces the “health dictatorship”. According to Florian Philippot, his teams, “aware of an insufficient number of sponsorship promises” have been working for several days to “freeze the sending of signatures” to the Council.
Florian Philippot, who defends France’s exit from the EU (Frexit), calls on the mayors who had pledged to sponsor him “to grant their signature to a candidate of their choice who has not yet obtained the necessary 500 sponsorships “.
No voting instructions
But he does not call at this stage to vote for another candidate, before an online consultation of the members of the Patriots, who would be 36,000 according to him and will continue to “actively participate in the defeat of Emmanuel Macron”, on the occasion including legislative elections in June.
One of the demonstrations against the health pass, on January 15 in Paris, was marked by an attack on an AFP team, which Florian Philippot had “condemned”, citing “a small failure” in security. Agence France-Presse had filed a complaint for “intentional violence in meetings” and “death threats”, and in his name for “obstructing freedom of expression”.