Jordan Bardella loves to say he loves TV showdowns.
However, he will be the only one to skip the first European debate, which will be held on Thursday March 14 on Public Senate, from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., live from the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
It doesn't matter that seven other heads of lists are participating – Léon Deffontaines for the PCF, Manon Aubry for LFI, Marie Toussaint for Les Écologues, Raphaël Glucksmann for the PS, Valérie Hayer for Renaissance, François-Xavier Bellamy for LR and Marion Maréchal for Reconquête –, the president of the National Rally declined the invitation.
The reason is simple: not enough visibility on Public Senate for the poll champion.
“And why not Coquelicot TV?
“, he squeaked on the sidelines of a press conference last week.
A scene reported by La Tribune Dimanche.
A contempt that his team does not accept.
“They told us
(wrongly)
that his remarks had been distorted and that he had said:
If I accept Public Senate, I will have to accept Coquelicot TV
,” says one of the debate organizers.
“The RN assured us that Jordan Bardella found that it was too early in the campaign to hold debates,” we add.
“They send us the Kremlin intern”
According to our information, the RN has proposed replacing Jordan Bardella with MEP Thierry Mariani or with the head of the RN delegation to the European Parliament Jean-Paul Garraud.
The organizers of the debate – Public Senate but also the Ebra press group – hesitated: should we not tell the RN that it was Bardella or no one?
“Finally, for the animation of a democratic debate, we said to ourselves that it was complicated not to invite the RN,” slips one of the organizers.
Which definitively confirmed this Thursday, March 7, during a video meeting with the representatives of the candidates, that it would indeed be Thierry Mariani who would debate for the RN.
“But our invitation from Jordan Bardella is still running!
», We know from the media side.
On the Renaissance side, we rub our hands at the idea of finding ourselves face to face with Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-minister Thierry Mariani: “They
(at the RN)
make gross mistakes.
This also demonstrates how pretentious and arrogant Bardella is.
» Regarding Thierry Mariani, ardent defender of Moscow, “they are sending us the Kremlin intern, the spokesperson for Vladimir Putin”, we are looking forward to.
Especially since one of the four themes discussed next Thursday will be the war in Ukraine.