It started out more or less normally and then the exchange quickly became tense. Marion Maréchal, head of the Reconquête list in the European elections, was the guest of Sonia Devillers this Tuesday, May 28 morning on France Inter. After a first question on the war in Gaza, the exchange quickly turned to the extreme positions of the far-right candidate concerning transidentity. Sonia Devillers first asks Marion Maréchal if she is aware of committing “an offense” when she claims that the prize for best actress at Cannes, given to four actresses including trans actress Karla Sofía Gascón, had been awarded “to a man”. Taking up her usual antiphon, the far-right candidate says “not to believe in there [prétendue, ndlr] gender theory». To which the journalist replies that it is not a question of “to believe or not to believe”since gender dysphoria is recognized by “science, medicine” and that transphobia is a legal matter.
The atmosphere is already quite electric when Sonia Devillers tries to reframe the exchange on family values of which Marion Maréchal wants to be the standard bearer by attacking transidentity. “What is the difference between the defense of the family that you propose and that of Marshal Pétain ?» then asks the journalist. Refusal of obstacle by Marion Maréchal, who considers that the question is “beast”, “crazy” And “outrageous”. “You see, when I hear this question, I remember why I want to privatize public broadcasting”replies the far-right candidate, believing that it would “save 4 billion to the French”. Sympathetic, especially since the Maison de la Radio is shaken by a movement protesting the government project to merge public broadcasting.
Undaunted, Sonia Devillers reformulates after several “you can move on to the next question” of his interviewee. “Has society evolved since that time or not?” “So children are always made by men and women. I’m sorry, maybe that’s fascist to you. It’s unbearablequips Marion Maréchal ironically. Nature is fascist, it’s terrible.” The journalist continues: “It’s simply that when we listen to Marshal Pétain, the French family is the basic unit of France…” New ironic response (and particularly insulting towards a journalist who recounted in a successful book the tragic fate of her Jewish maternal family) from Marion Maréchal: “Tell me, I think Hitler liked strawberry jam. Do you like strawberry jam? You’re a bit of a Hitlerite, aren’t you? Atmosphere. In the meantime, we will not know to what extent the head of the Reconquest list distances itself or not from the Pétainist doctrine. Nor if Hitler really liked strawberry jam.