After six months of trumpeting “Long live June 9” – its slogan at the start of the mobilizing European campaign – the National Rally is changing verses.
And gear.
Jordan Bardella is heading south this Monday, February 19, towards Menton (Alpes-Maritimes), for a trip focused on the migration issue, a historic frontist hit that the young party president has no intention of abandoning.
Visit to a CRS barracks in Saint-Laurent-du-Var in the morning and the Menton border post in the afternoon.
All accompanied by the new muse of the RN: Fabrice Leggeri, former director of the European Agency responsible for border control (Frontex), freshly announced as a recruit to the RN, in third position on the list led by Jordan Bardella.
“My goal is to put my experience and expertise at the service of the French.
(…) Our objective is to regain control of the borders, both those of the European Union and those of France,” declared Fabrice Leggeri in an interview with JDD, estimating that “the RN has a concrete plan and the capacity to achieve it.”
Leggeri, a contested official… but also disputed
“He is witness to the reality of what the European Union is doing, which is seeking to organize mass immigration.
His experience and expertise will give us credibility,” people around Jordan Bardella rub their hands.
A 55-year-old senior civil servant, Fabrice Leggeri headed Frontex from 2015 to 2022, before resigning following a disciplinary investigation.
The former director of Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, joined the RN list.
LP/Jean-Baptiste Quentin
A contested director, he was accused by NGOs of tolerating illegal pushbacks of migrants.
Contested official… but also disputed.
Because if the RN affirms that contacts with Fabrice Leggeri go back several months (he would have first met Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, before several meetings with the latter and his campaign director, the deputy Alexandre Loubet), he also led according to our information, simultaneous negotiations... with the Les Républicains party.
“We’ve been talking with him for months,” chokes up a high-ranking LR officer, affirming that he was still discussing with him “a few days” ago to include him in an eligible position on the list led by François- Xavier Bellamy.
The right, who were aware that the person concerned was also courted by Jordan Bardella, denounced a “disappointing opportunism”.
And to insist on the fact that in Brussels, the RN currently sits in a political group (ID) which has, until now, never been able to influence European policy.
Suck up the voices of the Zemmourists
The choice of the south-east of France to display this political approach is not insignificant on the part of Jordan Bardella either.
Right and far right thrive at the polls.
In 2022, Éric Zemmour achieved some of his best scores in the Var (13.25% compared to 7% nationally).
The fight against immigration was and still remains the heart of his political message.
So, if the two parties do not evolve in the same polling spheres (the RN is given around 29% against 6% on average for Reconquête), Jordan Bardella wants to suck up the votes of this annoying competitor, whose list is led by the ex-RN Marion Maréchal, to strengthen his lead over the Macronists (19%).
Privately, the boss of the RN has even been betting for a long time that the Zemmourists will not pass the 5% mark and in this case would not win any elected official;
which would suit him well in the long term.
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The same recently confided that the Southern region is “an important area of strength and mobilization” for his party.
This is also why its first major meeting of the European campaign will be held there, on Sunday March 3 in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône).
There will also be unveiled the new campaign slogan, which Marine Le Pen would have come up with these days.
The meeting is at Parc Chanot.
Currently, the configuration is planned to accommodate up to 6,000 people, but Alexandre Loubet is working these days to push the capacity back to 7,000. And the main theme chosen for the occasion will be... the migration issue.
Even if, in the context of the agricultural and energy crisis, the speeches will ultimately not do without a few messages sent on agriculture or energy prices.
The RN hopes to hold one meeting per major region.
Two “big events” will also liven up the campaign: one on May 1 and the other in the last week of the campaign, before Sunday June 9.
A date that Jordan Bardella and his team will continue to repeat in each of their media appearances to mobilize their potential voters.
They thus hope to protect themselves from a risk of demobilization which awaits them, they know, a little more than their competitors, with the objective of inflicting the greatest possible defeat on Emmanuel Macron.
In an interview published in “L'Humanité”, this Sunday, February 18, the head of state hammered home his conviction that the National Rally “did not fit into the republican arc”.