Sitting on a cyan blue sofa on the first floor of the Pavillon d'Armenonville, an opulent villa in the Bois de Boulogne, in Paris, Marine Le Pen waits for Emmanuel Macron's face to appear on her television screen at 8 p.m. to record his defeat with his inner circle.
She thanks them for the campaign carried out, assures that she has no regrets, that no error has been made.
“Like all political animals, she was imperturbable”, delivers a witness.
“She expected it a little, we were lucid”, breathes another.
With 41.2% of the vote, according to Ipsos estimates, the RN candidate, who misses the Élysée for the third time, obtains a disappointing result, far from a victory that the polls had been able to let her glimpse just before. the first round.
The candidate does not take long to descend in front of the 500 activists gathered on the ground floor.
It's 8:12 p.m.
She recognizes her defeat, with tight features, while denouncing “two weeks of unfair, brutal and violent methods, similar to those suffered by millions of French people on a daily basis”.
In the room, the champagne flutes "Marine president" of the sad activists are slowly emptying.
But Marine Le Pen prefers to see the cup half full.
“The result in itself represents a resounding victory”, relativizes the one who obtains almost 8% more than five years ago.
"Buried, we have been buried a thousand times, and a thousand times the scores have proven wrong those who predicted or hoped for our disappearance", warns the one who, already at the start of the school year in September in Fréjus, refused to believe in her disappearance: " After ten burials, we get one free!
»
VIDEO.
Despite his defeat, Le Pen evokes a "brilliant victory" and launches "the battle of the legislative elections"
"So yes, to avoid this grabbing of power by a few, more than ever, I will continue my commitment to France and the French," she says.
The room exults: “Marine, Marine!
" " The game is not quite played.
We are launching the great legislative battle tonight.
I will fight this battle alongside Jordan Bardella (
interim president of the RN
) and with all those who have the nation pegged to the heart, "projects the one whose father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has the saying: "Life always begins tomorrow !
“Now it is to curb Macron or give him full powers,” dramatizes RN MEP Thierry Mariani.
The intentions displayed do not answer the concrete questions: will Marine Le Pen take over the presidency of her party?
And above all, will she still be a candidate in five years?
To a journalist who asks her the question in the crowd, she dodges: “And you?
“It does not matter for the moment, the message is clear: it will be necessary to count on it.
“I will never abandon the French”, she concludes her six-minute speech, thanking her fans with joined hands.
She should also be a candidate for re-election as a deputy in Pas-de-Calais.
“The system has a hard life”, slips, bitter, an adviser
“She is 53 years old.
We are not for retirement at 53, especially when it comes to saving France, ”says his adviser Philippe Olivier.
A refusal to set sail which tempers what she implied during the campaign.
Twice, in interviews with Le Figaro and the JDD, in February and March, she had said: "A priori, I will not run (
for the presidential
election )".
While specifying that it would continue in one form or another “politics”.
“I'm not sure she wants to take over the reins of the party.
But I don't know, it's one of the things we never talk about.
But in this end of the campaign, something happened in the country compared to her, ”assured Philippe Olivier a few days ago.
According to him, Marine Le Pen has already said in private, about her constituents who flock to the markets to take selfies with her: “These people who need me are my engine.
“A story that allows Marine Le Pen and her team not to close any doors regarding her future.
Read alsoPresidential 2022: the highlights of the second round
But Marine Le Pen knows that after five years of work, she had never been so prepared as today, that her chances had never been so great.
Moreover, if it does not recognize any error, does not this new failure come to remind us of the existence of an unsurpassable glass ceiling?
“The system has a hard life”, recognizes, bitterly, one of his advisers.
And the competition will not give a gift.
In a short speech, Éric Zemmour cruelly recalled on Sunday evening that "this is the eighth time that defeat has struck Le Pen's name".
