Several representatives of the presidential camp regretted on Wednesday, July 10, that former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe and far-right figure Marine Le Pen had dined together. This meeting, like others between members of Macronie and the National Rally (RN), were organized at the home of former MP and former advisor to Emmanuel Macron Thierry Solère, the newspaper revealed. Release. Three years before the 2027 presidential election, this meeting with the head of the RN is a ” bad signal “.
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French far-right figures dining with sitting minister and former prime ministerEmmanuel Macron : what could be more normal, defends itself in substance former head of government Édouard Philippe on the French television channel TF1. Yes, that’s true. We had dinner, because we don’t know each other very well, we had dinner, we noticed during the dinner which was a cordial dinner that we had very deep disagreements on many subjects. “, indicated the president of the Horizons party, member of the outgoing majority.
This position has been qualified for the former prime minister and leader of Horizons, who has said for several years that he is opposed to any posture ” moral » vis-à-vis the extreme right party: « Marine Le Pen is over 40 % [au second tour, NDLR] in the 2022 presidential election. I don’t mind having dinner with her. »
The RN seems to be delighted with these events: “ I have dinner with a whole bunch of people, that’s completely normal. “, for his part, swept aside Marine Le Pen Wednesday.
De-demonization of the far-right party?
However, this is not to the taste of the whole class. French politics. ” There is an unbridgeable gap between us and the extreme right. ” And ” It is a bad signal to the country to multiply the signs that go in their direction “, MoDem president François Bayrou criticized on BFMTV on Wednesday, the day after the revelations of Release.
After parliamentary elections anticipated that left the National Assembly without a clear absolute majority, for some these rapprochements amount to further de-demonizing the far-right party. This ” means more or less that we can imagine that there are connections “, continued François Bayrou, the day after the revelations about these meetings held at the home of Thierry Solère, former deputy and former advisor to President Emmanuel Macron.
On the government side, the Paris MP and former leader of the Renaissance MPs, Sylvain Maillard, found that ” This is not trivial “, he commented on Radio J. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he would have declined the invitation, as did his colleague in government, Aurore Bergé: ” I wouldn’t have gone if I had been invited. “, said the Minister Delegate for Equality between Women and Men on France 2. ” Edouard Philippe dines with whoever he wants, I wouldn’t have dined with Marine Le Pen “, also responded the Minister of the Interior.
On the contrary, for the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, number 2 of the Horizons party of Édouard Philippe, ” It never hurts to know who your political opponents are. ” According to him, the former Prime Minister, a supporter of ” neither-RN, nor-LFI “, ” is one of those who, both during the European elections and during these legislative elections, struck with the most force and the most consistency against the threat of seeing the National Rally come to power “.
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