Not always easy to embody the protest while wishing to convince the majority of French people.
Since presiding over the National Front, which has become the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen has always been torn between anti-system transgression, which binds its base, and the quest for presidential credibility.
The sensitive news of the last few months has put this “at the same time” RN sauce to the test.
On the Covid-19 crisis, the president of the party thus both fired red balls on the government, without calling into question the very principle of containment, as does for example the former vice-president of the FN, Florian Philippot, now at the head of his shop.
"We defend public freedoms, without going into excess," defends Marine Le Pen.
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“In the end, we were never really against confinement but never really for,” observes an elected official.
The equation is not simple for the RN whose supporters are, as opinion studies show, both the most worried about the coronavirus, but also the most opposed to the restriction measures imposed by the authorities.
Same difficulty with the vaccine.
If, in December, Marine Le Pen indicated that she preferred "to wait for a traditional vaccine" to that of Pfizer [which uses messenger RNA technology], she strongly criticized the slow deployment of said vaccine by the authorities public.
Before finally letting go on January 9 that she was "finally ready to be vaccinated", claiming to now have "the studies" necessary.
An evolution that accompanies that of the French whereas, according to a recent Odoxa poll, 56% of the population is now in favor of vaccination.
But RN sympathizers remain the most numerous to oppose it (63%), like some party officials.
Gilbert Collard, for example, was moved in mid-December that the vaccine was "the biggest financial affair of the century", with conspiratorial accents.
"I am reasonable where Macron is unreasonable"
"With the health crisis, borderline people are falling," slips in private Marine Le Pen, referring to the case of a regional RN advisor who spoke to her about the conspiracy theory of the "Great reset".
When asked on BFMTV in mid-November about the conspiracy documentary “Hold-Up”, according to which the coronavirus is part of an elite strategy to exterminate the poor, the president of the RN clearly says: “I do not believe in the conclusions of this documentary ”.
But also said to be "struck by hysteria" against him, refusing to condemn him.
“Anyone can watch this documentary and form their opinion.
[…] Freedom of expression does not consist in having everyone agree, ”she puts into perspective.
In short, the controversy would in his eyes be more serious than the object of the controversy itself.
A dialectic also used concerning the attack on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump, of whom she now assures, against all evidence, that he has never been an "ally".
The very next day, Marine Le Pen said she was "shocked", considering that "any act of violence which aims to attack the democratic process is unacceptable".
“But even more serious is the desire of […] certain digital giants to determine in our democracy who has the right to participate in public debate and who does not have the right”, she adds, a few days later. late on RFI, in reference to the closure of Donald Trump's Twitter account.
As for several of its elected officials, some of whom relayed the accusations of fraud, they minimize the seriousness of the attack, even seeing it as the hand of the far left.
Maintain an anti-establishment stance while reassuring, a crest line complicated to hold?
“This is a line, not a ridge, but a reason.
I am reasonable where Macron is unreasonable, ”reacts the presidential candidate.
In her own way, she would therefore also defend this "complex thought" dear to Emmanuel Macron.
One way for her to demonstrate that the RN would have gone, under her leadership, from a "protest party to an opposition party and finally government".
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Still at the RN, she admits, “there are people who see us as an anti-system party and for whom we should be anti-everything.
But no, we must not be anti-everything.
"" His stake is credibility.
But be careful not to completely smooth!
Worries an elected official, anxious that the RN electorate does not turn to other more transgressive offers.
Marine Le Pen prefers to shrug her shoulders: "I've been told that since I took the presidency of the party ..."