From Perpignan, where the National Rally (RN) held its May 1 meeting, the head of the party's list in the European elections, Jordan Bardella, and Marine Le Pen warned their voters against "abstention" and " dispersion” of votes forty days before the election.
“Don’t spread yourself thin on patriotic lists that can’t win. Don't abstain. To abstain is to vote for Emmanuel Macron. Don’t give him this gift,” said the MEP, who has been leading so far in the polls. A few minutes before, the president of the RN group in the National Assembly and three-time presidential candidate also sounded the mobilization in her camp. “For every French patriot, participation in this election is a duty, a command (…) When the fate of the country is at stake, we do not go astray,” declared Ms. Le Pen from the podium.
In the sights of the two far-right elected officials, voters tempted by the candidacy of Marion Maréchal (Reconquest!). For Mr. Bardella, “France no longer has time to watch its patriotic voices disperse. Come alongside us, choose those who can act. I extend my hand to you.” He also addressed “right-wing voters who are orphans of a candidate, of a vision” who are “attached to work, to merit, to authority, to a certain idea of France”. “Look who took the torch,” he said.
Attempting to dramatize the stakes of these European elections scheduled for June 9, Mr. Bardella estimated that this vote is a “vote of civilization” involving the “destiny of France” and which will be “decisive for the future of your children ". “This June 9 is a referendum for or against the disintegration and erasure of France,” he also summarized, during a speech lasting nearly forty-five minutes in front of around 2,000 people. . The RN candidate then tried to tighten up the stakes of this campaign by mainly attacking the head of state, Emmanuel Macron, and the presidential camp candidate, Valérie Hayer.
“You will have to choose between two visions of Europe,” he assured. Macron's Europe: that of punitive ecology, imposed immigration, degrowth, unfair competition and now the sharing of our nuclear weapon. On the other hand, you can choose the Europe of nations, that of realities, of people, of concreteness, of identities, of borders, of European preference. » For her part, Marine Le Pen called on her voters to “counter, sanction, dismiss, to give this power the most scathing electoral sanction that can be inflicted on it”.
Control of borders and reindustrialization
Alternating between national and European measures, Jordan Bardella listed some of his promises which aim in particular "to regain control of our national and European borders", to "re-industrialize", to "privilege the local" and "to protect businesses facing unfair competition.” “What good is Europe if it doesn’t use its size to face economic warfare? “, he asked. The MEP, who was particularly discreet in Parliament during the last legislature, promises “national priority and European preference in public procurement”. “Each boat that docks on our territory will be systematically returned to its port of origin,” he also promised, acclaimed by RN activists.
The far-right candidate also returned to an interview with Emmanuel Macron published on Sunday in regional dailies where the head of state said he was ready to “open the debate” on a European defense which would also include nuclear weapon. “I am in favor of opening this debate which must therefore include anti-missile defense, long-range weapon firing, nuclear weapons for those who have them or who have American nuclear weapons on their soil,” a- he estimated, calling on European countries to put all options “on the table”, looking “at what truly protects in a credible manner”. However, for Mr. Bardella, “consenting to European defense would amount to depriving our nation of attributes essential to the exercise of its sovereignty.”
Almost a month before the June 9 vote, Mr. Bardella and Ms. Le Pen once again defended “the Europe of nations” against the current European Union, defined by the member for Pas-de-Calais as a “curious creature, above ground, who doubts nothing”. “The slightest criticism against her is prohibited, as if von der Leyism were a revealed religion,” castigated Ms. Le Pen, targeting the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. “We are right to be critical. We are right to want something else for Europe and for France and for ourselves,” she also defended.
