Marine Le Pen's National Rally is expecting around 1,400 of its activists on Monday in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), a way to relaunch its traditional May Day celebration, formerly dedicated to Joan of Arc, now renamed "Feast of the nation" and geared towards "social peace". "It's a social choice in the current context," explained an RN executive, also arguing "the big scores" obtained in last year's legislative elections by Frontist candidates in several constituencies of the department, lands hitherto not very promising for the flame party.
"What we are playing is the people against Macron," he continued, against a background of latent protest against the pension reform, which the RN opposed without however participating in the processions. Marine Le Pen, who is due to end the day after a speech by the new party president, Jordan Bardella, intends "to take stock of the project of deconstruction, dispossession and expropriation of Emmanuel Macron", she said. explained in an interview published Sunday in Le Parisien. Castigating the executive, the boss of the French far right again estimated that there were only "three possible ways out of a crisis: the dissolution of the Assembly, the referendum or the resignation of the president".
In Le Havre, a workers' city and union stronghold, the RN banquet will be challenged by a "counter-demonstration" organized by several associations, as well as the Le Havre rapper Médine. It will be held at a good distance from the Lepenist raout, planned for the Carré des docks, where the mayor of the city, a certain Édouard Philippe, launched his Horizons party eighteen months ago. A warning, while several voting intention polls for the next presidential election designate Marine Le Pen and Édouard Philippe as qualified for the second round? "It's a wink that amuses me," admits the party's number two, Sébastien Chenu.
In an interview with the regional daily Paris-Normandy published on Sunday, Jordan Bardella expressed his ambition "to have an RN mayor in Le Havre in 2026", launching: "We are in Le Havre at home. "But of course..." the former prime minister replied wryly on Twitter. The meeting on May 1 should above all launch the pre-campaign of the Europeans, which will be held in a year, for which Jordan Bardella – probable future head of the list – has entrusted the direction of the campaign to deputy Alexandre Loubet. "We are waiting for the ballot with greed: it will be a referendum for or against Macron", stamps a figure of the party, who predicts "a warning shot".
