Bruno Gollnisch arrived early, for lunch. Time to remember some memories. From the time when he was in law school, in Nanterre, and Patrick Buisson in literature school, in the same place. A year separated them, but they were part of the same union, the FNEF. A split from the Unef, supposed to be apolitical, but which in fact brought together right-wing and far-right anti-sixty-eight students. It was years ago. This January 3, 2023, in the Saint-Ferdinand des Ternes church, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, we bury Patrick Buisson, a tutelary and contested personality, whose shadow has brooded over the representatives of the hard right for more than fifty years. And, for them, the funeral meeting is impossible to avoid.
On the square, Charles de Meyer, the founder of SOS Chrétiens d’Orient, leads the arrivals. He met Buisson a long time ago, at the presentation of a preview of his film on the trial of Joan of Arc. They hit it off straight away, helped by their shared love of Maurras prose. A black truck parks a few meters away. Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella come out, quickly cover the short distance that separates them from the entrance, and sit in the front row, upright and silent. The member for Pas-de-Calais, however, never carried this champion of the union of the rights, a friend of her father, in her heart. It was on the advice of Patrick Buisson that in 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy siphoned off votes from the National Front, after having explained his strategy to Jean-Marie Le Pen, during a lunch in Montretout. He again who assured, last April, that the RN would never come to power as long as Marine Le Pen was a candidate. Not resentful, the latter still paid tribute to the deceased, saluting a man “of great culture, a talented writer” whose “provocative spirit and sharp pen” – for which she paid the price – “will be missed to France.
Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella and Eric Zemmour
2:45 p.m. The sound of the organ fills the room. The ceremony begins in this large, barely filled church where religious songs, sung in Latin, resonate. The requiem is given following the Dominican rite, and must last more than two hours. For the occasion, the Fraternity of Saint-Vincent Ferrier traveled from Vannes. It pays homage to “this Catholic, this Frenchman”, this “soul well embarked in the shipwrecks of civilization” was baptized 74 years ago. The opportunity to also take a swipe at the Second Vatican Council, reviled by the “tradits”. And at this time “where the religion of salvation is decomposing into a religion of happiness”, moment when the teaching of “the last judgment is put aside in favor of a utopian project of absolute happiness”.
An hour after the start, Marine Le Pen leaves the room. It must be said that she has little taste for traditional masses, of which she is not very fond, although she keeps her knee flexible while making the sign of the cross. She leaves Bruno Gollnish to keep Jordan Bardella company. To their right, slightly camouflaged by the smoke of the incense, we see Eric Zemmour, Sarah Knafo, Stanislas Rigault, who also had a special history with the essayist. In 2021, it is Patrick Buisson who advises the former journalist from Figaro to launch into the presidential campaign. Along the way, he gives him his advice, his criticisms, and takes a tender look at this new herald of the union of the rights. Stanislas Rigault, young president of Generation Z, also has a wet eye. Lulled by Buisson’s writings, he gave him a helping hand with the promotion of his books, the management of his social networks, taking the opportunity to absorb a few ideological references.
A journalistic generation
Interruption of songs. The assembly rises. Vincent Hervouet takes the podium. The Europe 1 journalist, a regular speaker on CNews, was a friend of the essayist, and protested at length about the treatment that the press usually reserved for the deceased. He greets a scrap dealer, an intellectual, a “Christian from the depths of the church”. At the back of the church, precisely. It is here that we find the ideological heirs of Patrick Buisson. The essayist infused his thoughts into an entire generation. And they are all there, the Buisson babies. The team of Current Valueswhich Buisson briefly directed after having headed the anti-Semitic weekly Minuteresponded present.
Geoffroy Lejeune and Charlotte d’Ornellas (now in JDD), Laurent Dandrieu, Marc Eynaud huddle together on the cold wooden benches. Eugénie Bastié and Alexandre Devecchio, the editors of Figaro Vox, are seated a few meters away, with the leaders of their editorial staff. “They are the journalistic heirs of Patrick Buisson and Eric Zemmour,” adds a journalist from TV Liberté. These conservatives, now well established in the media, and who believe in right-wing Gramscism, dear to Patrick Buisson. This certainty according to which the political fight is won first and foremost through ideas. Convinced Bushists, these right-wing journalists mourn the disappearance of a mentor by tasting the reactionary homily given in his honor.
Union of the extreme right on the square
The old hands of the extreme right are there too. A little apart, the royalist Paul-Marie Coûteaux only joins the crowd to take communion. François Bousquet, editor-in-chief of the neorightist magazine Elements, usually rather animated by the neopagan flame, even goes so far as to bless the coffin. He is closely followed by a swarm of young people, satellites of the RN or Reconquête, who have rubbed shoulders with Patrick Buisson, read his works, listened to his conferences. Among them, the friends of Jordan Bardella. The president of the RNJ Pierre-Romain Thionnet, or the lawyer Pierre Gentillet, stand discreetly and listen. Usually, they have little taste for Christian rituals, but agree to make an exception. It’s a special day.
4:30 p.m. The mass ends with a Hail Mary. About a hundred people leave the church. On the square, a few stop for a moment to chat. Sarah Knafo, Pierre Gentillet, Pierre-Romain Thionnet, Stanislas Rigault, Jérôme Sainte-Marie, Arthur Perrier (Jordan Bardella’s chief of staff). The group photo looks like a blended family. Jordan Bardella quickly left. “It was the post-right at the funeral of the union of the rights,” laughs Arnaud Stéphan, former advisor to Marion Maréchal, still present in the ecosystem.
The post-right, but without the right. None of the Les Républicains party officials were seen in the aisles of the church. Éric Ciotti, however, paid tribute to the man who experienced “before many the great dangers which threaten our country.” It must be said that between Patrick Buisson and the right, relations have become strained since the revelation of the Elysée wiretapping scandal – obviously Nicolas Sarkozy, who did not react to the death, is missing, same as Georges, the son with whom the deceased had been estranged for years. “Either they were on vacation, or they had a swimming pool, or they don’t have much stomach recognition,” fume those present. But Eric Ciotti or Bruno Retailleau would undoubtedly have done a bit of a job, in this extreme right-wing setting. Accepting Buisson’s advice is still okay, showing off to his sulphurous heirs, no thanks. And a relative of the deceased agreed: “That doesn’t surprise me. They are afraid of their shadow, and only think about avoiding the squall.”