Eric Zemmour, the boss of the Reconquest party! is on tour throughout France to sign his latest book I didn’t say my last word, a book that looks back on his failure in the presidential election. Meanwhile, his team is preparing what’s next: the 2024 European elections.
It’s a question of survival for Reconquête! To continue to exist, the far-right party must send elected officials to Strasbourg next year and make people forget their failure in the legislative elections – no elected Reconquest! entered the Palais Bourbon last June. The European Parliament is above all a media platform for its elected representatives. So, we set the bar rather high at Éric Zemmour’s HQ. One of his lieutenants is even betting on a score higher than that of the presidential election: Éric Zemmour had scored 7% in the first round. Why not do more to Europeans ? “It is typically an election where new political forces find space”confides to us a Reconquest executive who cites the example of Bernard Tapie, the former businessman whose list had obtained 12% in 1994. Thirty years later, Éric Zemmour would also see himself creating a surprise with its concept of “civilizational Europe”.
Marion Maréchal approached to lead the list
But not sure that Eric Zemmour fights the battle himself. In the opinion of even one of his relatives, the former polemicist is not enthusiastic about the idea of going to sit in the European Parliament. The more the weeks pass, the more the name of Marion Maréchal, the niece of Marine Le Pen returns to lead the list. She is currently Executive Vice President of Reconquest! responsible in particular for doctrine and ideas. And it is therefore she who could represent the far-right party to the Europeans. Even if Éric Zemmour has not yet officially ruled out the idea of going there himself.
Bring order to the shop Reconquest!
In the meantime, we must put the party in working order, transform a nascent movement in the service of a campaign into a real party. It was Nicolas Bay, a Member of the European Parliament, who came from the Rassemblement national, who was responsible for putting order in the Reconquête! shop, after the double failure in the presidential election and then in the legislative elections. This other executive vice-president of the party has replaced more than half of the departmental delegates of the movement and is currently working on the creation of a national council, a kind of future parliament of the party.
But nothing is gained for Éric Zemmour who will once again have the National Rally on his way. The party of Marine Le Pen, winner of the last Europeans, in 2019. It is Jordan Bardella, the current president of the RN who should be back at the head of the list. But Éric Zemmour is also eyeing LR voters. And to convince them to vote for Reconquest!, party executives are busy behind the scenes to rally MEPs to Les Républicains. “We discuss with Nadine Morano or even François-Xavier Bellamy”, entrusts us with an elected Zemmourist. Two personalities also coveted by the National Rally.