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Energy crisis: the RN demonstrates alongside bakers to "carry their voice" and "their demands"

2023-01-23T17:14:05.844Z


Absent from the days of mobilization against the pension reform, Lepenist deputies on the other hand participated in a rally on Monday to denounce the explosion in electricity prices.


Go pounding the pavement yourself, or settle for oral support.

This is the question posed to the National Rally, lately, when it comes to mobilization.

A fierce opponent of the executive pension reform project, the RN refuses, for example, to associate itself for the moment with the recent demonstrations organized by the inter-union or by the Nupes.

“It is not part of our DNA”

, repeat the representatives of the party to the flame, to justify their refusal to take to the streets.

This Monday, however, a delegation of a dozen Lepenist deputies, led by Sébastien Chenu, was present in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, to support the bakers and artisans who marched against the rise in energy prices.

Read alsoHow LFI and the RN are fighting to be the first opponents of pension reform

“The question of pensions will be debated in the National Assembly, but this will not be the case for energy, while we have been asking for weeks for a debate on the exit from the European electricity market”

, advances the deputy RN of Pas-de-Calais, Caroline Parmentier.

Without however ignoring that the RN was not

persona non grata

in the rally of the day, unlike the last two mobilizations against the pension reform, where the unions had made it known that the nationalist formation was not welcome in the processions.

“Knowing this, we have no interest in going to an event from which we will be tried to be chased away

,” concedes an elected official.

The feeling of not being heard

This Monday, on the other hand, there was no visible hostility among the participants, when some 500 people gathered near the Place de la Nation.

Among them: bakers, but also hairdressers, laundry owners, and craftsmen.

All share their difficulties in paying their bills, and an increase in the price of energy multiplied by two, even by ten in certain territories.

On site, there are also former "yellow vests", convinced that the fight is not over.

Or lifelong activists, present, already, last Thursday, during the demonstration against the pension reform.

A heterogeneous public where French flags, “antivax” slogans, hostility towards journalists mingle.

A cluster of diffuse and diverse anger, with one constant, for all participants:

the feeling of not being heard.

And the possibility, identified by the RN, of transforming this popular resentment into electoral potential.

“Their claims are not brought to the Assembly,

assures Thomas Ménagé, RN deputy from Loiret.

The idea, by participating in this event, is to support them and carry their voice.

Read also Pensions: RN deputies will file a referendum motion, announces Marine Le Pen

In the procession, most of the demonstrators already seem receptive to the ideas of the party to the flame, in particular on purchasing power.

“Where is Marine Le Pen?”

we ask everyone in the ranks.

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Debout la France deputy, former supporter of Marine Le Pen in the second round of the 2017 presidential election, is also well received.

The ex-candidate Jean Lassalle, finally, is entitled to a standing ovation when he appears.

The mobilized craftsmen share their fed up, and a feeling of

“all rotten”

which wins them a little more every day.

“No one has listened to us for years, so we can hope that the deputies of the RN will serve as a relay, because it is the elected officials who are closest to us”

, testifies Philippe, a baker in Île-de-France.

An electoral pool for the RN

The deputies are aware of the potential electoral pool constituted by this category of population.

It is typically the type of electorate that we can conquer

”, assures one of them.

Since the return to parliament, the nationalist party has been very attentive to the demands of these professional branches.

At the beginning of January, already, Jordan Bardella, president of the party, had sent a letter to the bakers of France.

While in November, an RN delegation came to support the butchers, who were demonstrating in front of the National Assembly in the face of soaring energy prices.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-01-23

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