The remarks are unusual for a Minister of the Interior and potential future candidate in 2027: Gérald Darmanin believes in an interview given Thursday, August 24 to The voice of the North that a victory for Marine Le Pen in the next presidential election is “fairly likely” if the majority “let go of a majority of the working and middle classes” in the leader of the RN.
“The fact is that in five years, a victory for Madame Le Pen is quite likely. Faced with this, we will only need one candidate. And that we do not rely only on the winners of globalization and the elected from the city centers, because that does not make 51% of the votes”, judge Gérald Darmanin. According to him, we should not “leave a majority of the working and middle classes” at Marine Le Pen since “the senior executives” would not be able to “take them to the second round”.
He organizes Sunday in his electoral stronghold of Tourcoing (North) his first political return, where several ministers and several dozen parliamentarians are expected, a few weeks after the ministerial reshuffle and the maintenance at Matignon of Elisabeth Borne. “I feel legitimate to say that we must take care of the social pot that is boiling,” he continues.
“The social question is essential”
“Sunday, I will say that the social question is essential. That’s what would get Marine Le Pen elected in 2027, not the migration question. In 2007, let’s remember, Nicolas Sarkozy was not elected on national identity, but on the question of work. We must therefore tackle it”, insists Gérald Darmanin. The former leader of the Republicans (LR), rallied to Emmanuel Macron in 2017, “pleads, for example, for the delay in the reduction of production taxes for companies”, and wishes that “a part” of them make “efforts” on wages.
“I would add that we have to worry about a new proletariat made up of all these single-parent families who are not making it. What was wrong with the pension reform was that they were being asked indeed to work more in the current conditions”, he adds. What to sketch the outline of a presidential program? One thing is certain: the Minister of the Interior is getting into orbit for the 2027 race. By bringing together all his supporters in Tourcoing on Sunday, Gérald Darmanin wants to show that he weighs and that he is preparing for his future.
“A stature of a statesman”
“Gérald has the stature of a statesman, a destiny. He understood, more than ever, that 2027 is tomorrow and that we have to get organized”, enraged a parliamentarian close to the Northerner in L’ Express last August. It should be noted that the minister received strong support this summer in the person of Nicolas Sarkozy, of whom he was the campaign manager. “Will he be able to take another step, even the final step, that which leads to the presidency of the Republic? I wish him so”, writes the former president of the Republic.
Asked about the recent reshuffle, Gérald Darmanin assures that he “always thought that the President of the Republic would not change government. It was much too early. We change it when we have difficulties in Parliament or when we lose an election”. But he says he is “sometimes frustrated” at not being able to express his “political opinion”. “I told the president, you have to let the feelings express themselves. I do not have the same as Bruno Le Maire, that does not prevent me from enjoying being in government with him”.