This will be the real start of the European campaign.
While all the heads of the list are on the starting line, with the recent designation of Valérie Hayer as leader of the macronie, the media confrontations will be able to begin.
The first of these will be organized by Public Senate on March 14 from Strasbourg - the city which hosts the European Parliament where the 81 deputies elected on June 9 will sit.
If the main candidates have given their agreement in principle to participate in this televised contest, according to information from
La Tribune Dimanche
, only one will be missing: Jordan Bardella.
Indeed, the president of the party with the flame will not debate with his competitors.
He will be replaced by his colleague Thierry Mariani, according to information from
Libération
confirmed to Le
Figaro.
If Nicolas Sarkozy's former minister has become one of the RN referents on international affairs, this choice may be surprising in many respects.
While some have accused Jordan Bardella of disdaining the parliamentary channel, Thierry Mariani justified the choice of his boss to
HuffingtonPost
: “
It's not that he's afraid to debate or that he despises the channel.
It's just that the campaign hasn't really started, and we are three months before the election.
He doesn’t need to debate this early.”
The risk of a “Putinism” trial
Although Thierry Mariani has not yet been invested by the nationalist party, there is almost no doubt about his arrival on the RN list.
A presence which could well fuel the “Putinism” trial that the oppositions already address to the nationalist party at the slightest opportunity.
Known for his pro-Russian positions, Thierry Mariani could well become the ideal target for other headliners.
Contradictors who will not fail to recall the ambiguities of the RN towards the Kremlin for years.
And who will undoubtedly use this angle of attack to try to make up for the gap that separates them from the RN in voting intentions, with Marine Le Pen's party prancing in first position.
This is why this choice presents a major risk: that of ruining the “normalization” strategy that the RN has methodically deployed for several months.