Florian Philippot, in full speech during an anti sanitary measures rally in Paris, Saturday, June 12 – TH
- The Patriots, a political formation created by Florian Philippot in 2017, is experiencing “a real explosion”, according to the latter.
- Head of the list for the regional in the Grand-Est, he is now credited with 8% of intention to vote in the first round.
- Sovereignist and supporter of Frexit, Florian Philippot has focused his political communication for several months on the challenge of the government’s health policy. At the risk of relaying controversial theses.
Since his departure from the National Front in 2017, Florian Philippot and his Les Patriotes party had never been so popular. “We went from 2,000 members in January 2020 to more than 20,000 today, it’s a real explosion! », He claims. One week before the first round of regional and departmental elections, the head of the list in the Grand-Est is full of hope. A recent
Ipsos-Sopra Steria survey for France 3 now gives him 8% of voting intentions in the first round. “We were still only 4% two months ago, and 6% two weeks ago. Our objective is now to achieve a score of 10% to keep us in the second round and assert our voice in the regional council, ”says Florian Philippot to 20 minutes, a few minutes before one of the gatherings he organizes each week.
This survey upturn comes as the sovereignist has turned into a real anti-system influencer, slayer of the measures taken by the government to fight against the coronavirus. The Patriots, he writes in his campaign leaflets, are “a cluster of resistance against the health dictatorship”. Hyperactive on Twitter, but also on YouTube (16,000 subscribers in March 2020, 180,000 today), he posts one video per day and regularly explodes the views counter. Defender of Didier Raoult, he displays his skepticism with regard to the vaccination campaign, advocates the lifting of the wearing of masks and opposes the establishment of a health pass deemed “liberticidal”. The candidate even created a website,
“TousAntiPass”, to bring together opponents of this tool put in place by the government to fight against the epidemic.
“Opposition to sanitary measures makes us recognizable”
“Before, we were seen as a small National Rally (RN), which is of no interest, because we might as well vote for the big one,” continues Florian Philippot. Today, the discourse we have built on Frexit and the opposition to health measures unites and makes us recognizable. Only 10% of our members come from the RN. A new popularity which his former political formation hardly tastes. “He plays the drum in the public square, calls for the masks to be burnt, does some interviews on Cnews… It attracts some lost, but in the Europeans, he made 0.65%, tackles an RN executive with 20 minutes. He no longer brings anything to the national camp and his radicalism on the health plan is irresponsible for a political leader. “
Because, like certain other political leaders, the patriot in chief does not hesitate to hold speeches at the borders of the conspiracy and to propagate false information here and there. As when he shared a study supposed to demonstrate the uselessness of wearing a mask, even though its authors admitted that it was not convincing. Florian Philippot denies it, arguing that he did not know it at the time. And to continue: “Using the term” conspirator “is what people do who have no arguments, it is a portmanteau that no longer makes sense today. As soon as we are against Olivier Véran, we are conspiratorial! “
“No plot, everything is on the table”
And it is an affable Florian Philippot, blue blazer and white shirt, who joins the Patriotes gathering in Paris on Saturday, June 12. An event organized every week for more than six months, a few meters from the entrance to the Ministry of Health – “under the windows of Véran” -, but also in fifteen other towns in France. The previous week, it was – according to his accounts – nearly 5,000 people from all over France who had met in Paris, to protest against the health measures. “It was exceptional! We never bring together so many people, but this reflects the commitment of our activists. “
What a beautiful gathering for Liberty this afternoon under Véran’s windows! At the initiative of the Patriots! We will fight until we have won and regained all our freedoms! 🇫🇷
And at the same time 15 gatherings all over France! pic.twitter.com/RozNzdK4zJ– Florian Philippot (@f_philippot) June 12, 2021
This Saturday, more than a hundred people responded to Florian Philippot’s call. For the most part dressed in an orange scarf – the color of the party – it is under a blazing sun that they welcome the leader of the Patriots. A simple public bench will serve as a platform for the hesitant speeches of a patriotic youth castigating “a Macron walking alongside Joe Biden at the G7 like a grandson walking alongside his grandmother”. No distinguished guest this week, but the sovereignist has “already brought in Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and the lawyer specializing in health law Fabrice Di Vizio”. Never mind, the crowd is delirious and the mere appearance of Philippot in the crowd electrifies the unmasked assembly, which rushes to embrace him: “You are brilliant, Mr. Philippot, we must continue! “
Perched on the bench, it is for the moment Dominique Bourse-Provence, Parisian manager of the Patriots, who is responsible for galvanizing the audience. He thus ensures that confinements and vaccination have only been put in place “for the greatest benefit of the ten largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in the world” and “to feed opinion leaders in medicine and pharmacy up to 500,000 euros per year ”. “No plot, everything is on the table, and that’s the biggest paradox! He claims.
“Montjoie Saint-Denis! Down with Macronie! “
His turn come, Florian Philippot attacks Emmanuel Macron, president who “took the perfect little manual of the Chinese dictator”, and “grants exemptions from curfew to the well-off at Roland Garros”, when he reserves the gas tear gas to others. Before asking, pell-mell, the resignation of the president of the Covid-19 scientific council, Jean-François Delfraissy and calling for a boycott of the health pass.
His speech resonates with the audience. Paola C., retired Parisian, must have participated in about fifteen Patriotes gatherings. Neither far-right, nor particularly convinced by Florian Philippot before he specialized in libertarian odes, she notes that he occupies “an empty political space so far”. Now a member of the party, she says she wants to defend the national identity in distress and firmly oppose the anti-Covid vaccine. “Besides, it is scientifically wrong to call it a” vaccine “, intervenes her friend Evelyne D., mimicking quotes with her fingers. It’s a gene therapy injection! The two women nod: “We don’t want to be guinea pigs. “
If the Patriot militants “do not recognize themselves in the RN”, the reflexes of the extreme right, they are always present. We will notice the “Montjoie Saint-Denis! Down with Macronie! »Sung by some hilarious men at the end of The Marseillaise – a reference to the sentence pronounced by the man sentenced to four months in prison for slapping Emmanuel Macron last week. Or this unfortunate tendency to monitor the actions of 20 minutes in the crowd.
“I will not line up behind the RN”
For this new regional candidacy – candidate under the FN label in 2015, he had collected 36.08% of the vote in the second round – Florian Philippot swears that he will not ally with his former party the day after the first round, an alliance being possible for the lists obtaining more than 5% of the votes. “I’ve said it before, I won’t stand behind the RN, for the simple reason that we no longer have anything to do with it. Next step, the race for the Elysée in 2022? “No, no, assures the leader of the Patriots, I am not one of those who, within the sovereignist camp, are obsessed with the presidency of the Republic. And if it’s to align 1%… ”