Marine Le Pen recognizes it herself, with the small smile of one who feigns astonishment. Since Monday, a new campaign has started, and it is, this time, spared neither by Emmanuel Macron, nor by his political opponents, nor by part of civil society, who do not fail to remind whoever would have it. forgotten that she is indeed a candidate of the extreme right. “I felt a change in tone between Friday evening and Monday morning, said the person concerned last week on BFMTV. A tone given by the President of the Republic. Emmanuel Macron is brutal and aggressive towards me. Reference to the “authoritarian drift” denounced by the president-candidate about the assumed refusal of Marine Le Pen to accredit the journalists of the show Daily to his meetings with the press.
Spared, she was of course not totally spared before the first round. But let’s say she spent most of her time under the radar, quietly rallying her electorate in the field or talking about her passion for cats and gardening, while Eric Zemmour sought – and obtained – all the ‘Warning. “Zemmour played the role of bad cop, even more extreme, more fundamentalist, more ideological, notes political scientist Erwan Lecoeur, a specialist in populism and the French far right. This allowed Marine Le Pen not to even have to talk about her traditional themes, which nevertheless still form the structure of her program. What Zemmour said in the media benefited her without her even needing to say anything. »
The Zemmour bubble burst at the end of the first round, it is as if some had rediscovered the program of the National Rally at the start of the week. The candidate notably had to answer very technical questions on her draft revision of the Constitution by referendum to include the notion of “national priority”, which would require circumventing the National Assembly and the Senate through Article 11. (project that seems difficult to achieve).
A bit of a big string that makes the RN smile
She was also teased on her profession of faith, where it is written that “Islamism is progressing and insecurity is increasing with + 31% of voluntary attacks since 2017”, and that “immigration is exploding with 1, 5 million admissions since 2017”. Figures sourced from the “Ministry of the Interior” but which the RN has arranged in its own way, as a paper from our colleagues explains very well of World. Seized, the National Commission for the Control of the Electoral Campaign expressed reservations about these figures but finally approved the document because of the “material impossibility” of a new printing.
The Macron camp, meanwhile, takes advantage of the slightest opening to attack Marine Le Pen. Without either going so far as to follow Eric Dupond-Moretti’s strategy to the letter, who wanted, according to The chained Duck, “re-demonize it, hit on its supporters, the guys from the GUD like Frédéric Chatillon or the legacy of the Waffen-SS and the Pétainists”, the first week between the two rounds was tough. Faithful among the faithful of the Head of State, Christophe Castaner, for example, does not miss an opportunity to scratch the contender for the Elysée, as when a demonstrator was brutally removed after having interrupted a press conference by Marine Le Pen on “the place of France in the concert of nations”.
A method that gently makes you laugh on the RN side. “Those who attempt this re-demonization come from a breathless system, which has only that to defend itself, responds to 20 minutes the deputy and spokesman for the candidate Sébastien Chenu. When we don’t have much to say, we say “oulala Marine Le Pen is very mean and very dangerous”. Frankly, it’s ultra dated and cheesy. “Gilles Pennelle, the boss of the party in Brittany, drives the point home: “Macron discovers that there has been an electoral campaign since Sunday, so he enters it like an elephant in a porcelain store. He has an abysmal record, so he launches these types of attacks to avoid talking about it. »
Of marble
More and more numerous and audible voices at LREM warn that this method is doomed to failure – or in any case will not advance the schmilblick. The outgoing president also carries his share of fierce opponents. Above all, it is not enough to press a switch to turn off the RN candidate. During each speech this week, Marine Le Pen was particularly calm. We would even like to say “overhanging”, to use an expression dear to Emmanuel Macron during the 2017 campaign. “These are terms that are not useful, she said on Wednesday about her opponent’s charges. It’s just an election. We compare opinions, we can do so in loyalty, courtesy, that’s the greatness of France. It’s a battle of ideas, it can’t be a battle of people. »
Even in the heart of the storm, like Friday in Pertuis (Vaucluse), where his stroll to the market was disrupted by around thirty demonstrators shouting “break up! “Or” fascist “, the candidate remained unmoved. Insults ? “It does not move us,” she assured the cloud of strained microphones. Surprised by the repeated attacks since Monday? ” Not at all. It comforts me in the idea that I can win. The brutality expressed towards me is proportional to the chances I have of winning this election,” she said.
For the shock phrases in the mouth of Marine Le Pen, we will come back. “We had anticipated the fact that obviously, the eternal professionals of indignation were going to set off with their old refrains, which are more and more outdated each year”, confides Sébastien Chenu. Everything was prepared to the millimeter. The speech is well-rehearsed. “The country has been brutalized for five years. The idea is therefore to sew up the republican fabric, develops the deputy from the North. We are not going to get into arguments with people who hurl insults at us from evening to morning. Marine Le Pen had said: “For me, the noise and the fury, it’s over.” I think that’s his mindset. If they want sound and fury, insults, protests, they will. But I think people are tired of that. »
This is how the MP for Pas-de-Calais is trying to build a “presidentiality”, five years after losing her footing during her first final. “Marine Le Pen has spent the past few years working on another image, wanting to show that it was not her, that she is in fact a dignified, calm woman who takes things with a grain of salt,” observes Erwan Lecoeur. And there have been times in this campaign where she has been able to show it. “For example when relatives left her to join Eric Zemmour. Even the desertion of his niece, Marion Maréchal, did not bring him out of his hinges.
“She prepared to be there today, back on the front line,” continues the far-right specialist. She has fewer political advisers than before, but more image advisers. She worked on her posture, her tone of voice. After a turbulent first week, Marine Le Pen will go green from Monday to prepare for Wednesday’s long-awaited televised debate against her opponent. Here too, everything has been fixed for a long time.