Marine Le Pen announced on Monday, from her stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais), that she would not “take the lead” of her party, the National Rally, to devote herself to the presidency of the future. RN group at the National Assembly.
“I will not take over the head of the RN. I will focus on the presidency of this very large group, ”said the far-right presidential finalist, who said she was “surprised” by the number of RN deputies – 89, a record – elected Sunday evening in the second round of the legislative elections, when she hoped for around 60.
A great surprise
“We hoped to have a group and in our greatest hopes we hoped to have 60 deputies. It is true that we were pleasantly surprised by the mobilization of our compatriots and by this wish that immigration, that insecurity, that the fight against Islamism does not disappear from the National Assembly, “said the MP for Pas-de-Calais.
Marine Le Pen said she called her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who turns 94 on Monday, on Father’s Day on Sunday, and reported that he was “very happy with this situation”. . “My father is a patriot who fought for many years,” she said as the far-right party, formerly called National Front (FN), is to celebrate its 50th anniversary in the fall.
Very demanding with its deputies
Asked about a possible presidential candidacy in 2027, she replied “we’ll see”, arguing that it was “not the priority of the French”. The leader of the RN clarified that she would “call” her 89 deputies “for excellence”. “We must be better, more hard-working, more efficient, more efficient,” she declared when the six RN deputies who had sat so far were not very regular in the Assembly.
She clarified that her group would not be “not an exclusively RN group” and that it would be “intended to welcome” deputies elected “thanks to RN voters”, and who had supported her in the second round of the presidential election, in quoting Emmanuelle Ménard in Hérault or Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, in Essonne.
A meeting to elect his successor
She reiterated that her group was going to “position itself as soon as (its) arrival at the National Assembly on fundamental subjects” such as “the fight against Islamism” and the citizens’ initiative referendum (RIC), warning that she intended to “implement the blocking of all harmful reforms (…), first and foremost retirement at 65”.
While several party executives, such as her press secretary Caroline Parmentier or her deputy presidential campaign manager Jean-Philippe Tanguy, were elected on Sunday evening, she assured that Jordan Bardella, acting president of the RN until September , “will have no difficulty in replacing those who today have been elected and who can maintain responsibilities in the movement”. “I did it myself for years,” she said.
She finally mentioned the meeting “within a few weeks” of a party congress, which will elect his successor at the head of the RN. The latter will therefore no longer bear the name Le Pen for the first time in its history.