Eric Zemmour will try this week to revive. Weakened by his defeats in the last elections, he wants to write a political future for himself with his movement, Reconquest!, whose change of status has provoked the anger of historical figures.
“I am proud and happy to announce that you were more than 96% to vote for the new statutes”: Saturday, the former polemicist wanted to be triumphant to announce the transformation of his party. This first stage of a media and political return must reach its high point during the weekend on the borders of the Var and the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the time of a summer university.
No more “honorary president”
However, the atmosphere promises to be stormy: Gilbert Collard protested against these internal elections which do not “respect the democratic process”. Thanks to the new statutes, the former RN lost his title of “honorary president”, a function purely and simply removed from the party’s organization chart.
Similarly, the “Political Committee” no longer exists: one of its members, Jacline Mouraud, figure of the yellow vests, announced on Monday that she was slamming the door of the political movement, depicting Eric Zemmour as “a man under the influence notorious of his companion, Sarah Knafo” to “autocratic conduct”. Another spawn of this late committee, the MEP Jérôme Rivière, now presents himself as a “simple member” at the same time as he showed his support for the discontent of Gilbert Collard.
To lead the party, the new statutes provide for an “executive office” chaired by Eric Zemmour and composed of three vice-presidents elected by the Congress but “on the proposal of the president”, as well as “one to three” additional members appointed directly by the same president. How to ensure Eric Zemmour control for at least the next three years, the duration of his term as head of the party. And members have until Wednesday to ratify the renewal of Marion Maréchal, Nicolas Bay, Guillaume Peltier, Stanislas Rigault and Sarah Knafo in the executive body.
count the troops
Beyond that, it is Eric Zemmour’s strategy that is called into question. With 7.07% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election, he certainly managed to clear a political space on the right, but was no match for Marine Le Pen. “He will never manage to capture a popular electorate”, notes an RN deputy. In her long resignation statement, Jacline Mouraud also points to a lack of “understanding of the concerns of ordinary people”.
This weekend, it will also be a question of counting the troops, while more than 5,000 militants are announced. If, for a long time, the party claimed more than 130,000 members, only 32,000 took part in the vote on the change of statutes. The beginning of the end for Eric Zemmour’s political career? “I thought about it, I thought about stopping and then I said to myself: (…) I threw myself into the water to try to stop the programmed disappearance of France”, he argued on Monday. on BFM TV. By estimating once again that if he had ” been wrong electorally “, he had ” been right for History “.