Marine Le Pen has a message to pass before the presidential election: she wants to embody the rally.
This is why several personalities from the right (Thierry Mariani in PACA, Jean-Paul Garraud in Occitanie, Sébastien Chenu in Hauts-de-France), DLF (Laurent Jacobelli in the Grand Est) or civil society (Hervé Juvin in the Pays de la Loire) were invested as head of the party list for the regional ones.
This is why the former LFI regional councilor Andréa Kotarac has just been invested in turn at the head of the list this Wednesday in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (AURA).
A little nod to the left to remind us that even if Marine Le Pen has primarily addressed the right-wing electorate over the past few weeks, she still no longer believes in the right / left divide for a long time (in favor of “Globalists” / “patriots”).
An internal standoff
But this appointment in AURA will have been the occasion of a more intense internal showdown than in the other regions.
The outgoing RN regional councilor and the first federal of Isère, Alexis Jolly, was also in the running.
Some party executives, like the deputy Bruno Bilde or the mayor of Fréjus David Rachline, do not necessarily see a good eye that the party assigns prominent positions to external figures, to the detriment of party products.
They therefore supported Jolly's more reassuring profile, especially since Andréa Kotarac, although coming from the ranks of the Mélenchonist left, is known to be close to conservative Catholic circles in Lyon.
He has indeed imposed a ticket to the municipal with the regional councilor Agnès Marion, close to the sensitivity of Marion Maréchal, him presenting himself to the Metropolis, she to the city of Lyon.
Faced with these two lines, Marine Le Pen, who maintains direct links of trust with Andréa Kotarac, was herself hesitant.
"I do not know how it will be decided", confided again, the day before the decision, a party executive.
"We must open our arms wide, give responsibilities to the people who join us", welcomed another Wednesday, setting the tone for the future presidential strategy of Marine Le Pen.
