You have to push the heavy door on rue de Ponthieu, wedged in the 8th arrondissement of Paris between a semi-libertine club and a bakery chain to reach Marion Maréchal’s campaign HQ. The head of the list of Reconquête, Eric Zemmour’s party, for the European elections insisted: she wanted to have her own headquarters to organize her campaign. A place of her own, far from the party premises. But it is not here that the appointment is made, this Tuesday, to present the list carried by the far-right party. The meeting took place on rue Jean-Goujon, stronghold of the original Zemmourie. It has been a long time since all the Reconquest executives were brought together; and we are almost surprised not to see the premises crossed by trenches as the countryside has been parasitized, in recent weeks, by significant internal quarrels.
Thursday March 14, Marion Maréchal brought together, alone, a slew of journalists to discuss “Islamo-rightism”, these supposed local connections between the right and communitarianism, far from the martial flights of the Republican leadership. For several days now, the ex-frontist has been straddling this theme to attack LR, portrayed as a “false right”. François-Xavier Bellamy defends himself from these accusations, the head of the list wants to respond to him in a solemn setting. Alongside Marion Maréchal, her close team. Above all, former frontists: the Niçois Philippe Vardon, the Marseillais Stéphane Ravier, the Lyonnaise Agnès Marion, in charge of communications, the identity activist Damien Rieu. Eric Zemmour was called pale. “Well, that’s true, but where could he be?”, a lieutenant of Marion Maréchal pretends to ask, grimacing.
The former presidential candidate preferred to go to Brussels. And none of his relatives made the trip. Oh yes ! Stanislas Rigault, youth president, hides a little at the back of the room. Relations have been at their worst between the two teams for weeks. From a lunch between the different party figures, recounted by Point, which turned into fistfights. In question, mainly, a strategic disagreement on the choice of Marion Maréchal to attack the right while sparing the National Rally. Eric Zemmour hits on the RN to get political oxygen, when Marion Maréchal emphasizes the complementarity of the two forces. Since then, communication has almost broken down between Zemmourists and Marshalists and each leads their campaign in parallel. We look at each other out of the corner of our eyes, we attack each other through the media, we tell each other about the latest stupidity of some, the recent renunciations of others.
“We should turn our cheek and say Amen ?”
At the beginning of April, the Zemmourists almost choked when Marion Maréchal, on a campaign trip to Carnac, refused to tow to La-Trinité-sur-Mer, a symbolic place for the Le Pen clan, so as not to offend her former political family. At the same time, in a video published on her social networks, she calls on the head of the RN list Jordan Bardella, particularly virulent towards her recently, not to “get the wrong opponent.” “It’s completely ridiculous,” laments an executive who discovered the initiative. “We should turn our cheek and say Amen while Bardella tells his voters that the Reconquest vote is a wasted vote? It’s a campaign, you have to hit them!”
On the Zemmour side, we look with disdain at a Marion Maréchal who “does not print”, we mock her team “who never responds, neither to the press, nor internally”, we tell ourselves while giggling about all these missed media meetings because a journalist remained unanswered. “What amateurism, really!”, rejoices someone close to Eric Zemmour. On the other hand, we deplore executives who are disengaged in the campaign, and we point out their future responsibility in the event of failure of the list.
It’s done. The two teams hate each other, and regularly flaunt it in the press. One day in Pointthe next day in The chained Duck. In the premises, we stare at each other wondering which side the next shot will come from. Yet this small team knows it: they are on the same boat and the polls are not looking good. They oscillate between 5% and 6% of voting intentions, i.e. no certainty of obtaining elected representatives in the European Parliament.
One list, two campaigns
So, less than fifty days before the election, we roughly agree on one observation: Reconquest is more or less at stake for its survival. We try one last card. Her name is Sarah Knafo. The partner of Eric Zemmour, the head of the presidential campaign in 2022, decides to engage in the battle, in 3rd position for the list. Enough to remobilize the Zemmourist clan, who tended to go away on weekends when Marion Maréchal needed a helping hand. “It is certain that now, we will do everything to ensure that Sarah is elected,” confirms one of them. So we’re rolling out the red carpet for Sarah Knafo. On April 28, the latter is entitled to an article in THE Figaro, an interview on BFMTV, a presidential welcome at the party headquarters afterwards, surrounded by activists, well-established communication on social networks, a meeting with the press (of which Marion Maréchal’s teams had not heard). It is difficult to remember the last time that Marion Maréchal was entitled to such treatment.
How sweet to the ears are dreams of appeasement, and impossible in reality. The rivalry is resuming with a vengeance, and even affects the federations. A local official welcomes this new commitment which contrasts with the “army of nickel-plated feet” (according to his expression) which makes up Marion Maréchal’s entourage. Each camp appropriates the little probing dynamic that follows the episode, and each tries to sell its story. For the Marionists, the few votes picked up in the voting intentions are linked to Marion Maréchal’s firm opposition to GPA, for the others, to the commitment of Sarah Knafo. “She had a very poor audience on BFMTV, in the street, people don’t know Sarah Knafo,” assures a puppet lieutenant. “They guys are too angry, they’re angry. They’re the ones who begged her to come, and now they’re choosy when they see that she’s bursting the screen,” retorts a Zemmourist. The atmosphere is good.
The Marshal rumor
The composition of the list continues to create tension. Especially since two names complete the team: those of Stanislas Rigault, in 6th position, a Zemmourist from the start, and Jean Messiha, in 8th position, a media figure well known for his Islamophobic comments, who comes to take his place supposed to be reserved for Philippe Vardon, Marion Maréchal’s right-hand man. One month before the election, Reconquête is still trying to display a united front, which takes the form of a cross-interview between Eric Zemmour and Marion Maréchal. In the columns of the friendly newspaper JDDthis Sunday, they recognize strategic differences and affirm a total union in terms of ideas.
The next day, however, no trace of Marion Maréchal at Sarah Knafo’s first meeting. Lately, a persistent rumor is running through the corridors of Reconquest: Marine Le Pen’s niece could well return to the Frontist fold once the elections are over. A hypothesis swept aside by those close to him but not discredited by the Zemmourists. “Of course it’s possible. She realizes that she will never have control here, and knows that the RN remains her home,” assures an executive. “I have always said that cohabitation between Sarah and Marion would be impossible, from the beginning” comments an executive from Reconquête from the start. It’s not for lack of warning.”
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