MARION MARSHAL. Back in politics, Marion Maréchal is a candidate for the 2022 legislative elections in Vaucluse under the banner of Reconquest! and as substitute for Stanislas Rigault.
The face of Marion Maréchal is all smiles on the electoral poster plastered in the 2th constituency of Vaucluse. Marine Le Pen’s niece wears the colors of Reconquest! but she is only on the second line because it is as a substitute that she is running in the 2022 legislative elections. She is seconding one of the figures of Éric Zemmour’s party, the president of Generation Z, Stanislas Rigault. Alternate, certainly, but far from being an extra because Marion Maréchal knows the territory in which she is fighting well for having already been elected in 2012 in the neighboring constituency, that of Carpentras, the 3th of the Vaucluse.
Executive Vice President of Reconquest! Marion Maréchal is one of the figures of the new far-right party and rival of the National Rally. But the return to politics of the former deputy is being done gradually without seeking a term of office at the Bourdon palace. A choice that seems to suit the 30-year-old who claims on Twitter to be “very happy” to accompany “the incarnation of [la] committed patriotic youth” for the elections of June 12 and 19.
Why Marion Maréchal is not a candidate for the legislative elections?
The role of deputy, Marion Maréchal knows it since she was for five years, from 2012 to 2017, one of the elected members of the National Front in the Assembly. The niece of Marine Le Pen who was competing at the time under the family banner had launched herself as a candidate in the Vaucluse and had won. Ten years after this first election, Marion Maréchal returns to the arena with a few differences: she is no longer the incumbent candidate but Stanislas Rigault’s alternate. A decision taken by the young woman who is expecting a child and could give birth between the two rounds of the 2022 legislative elections.
Marion Maréchal already mentioned her family life during the presidential campaign as one of the reasons that justified her hesitation to reinvest the political scene. After reflection, the young woman decided to make compromises by returning step by step to politics: by holding a position within her new party but without becoming a national elected official again. She nevertheless put both feet back in the political sphere since she left the reins of her school of political science in Lyon, Issep, by swapping her position as general manager to simply become the head of the professional network pole.
Can Marion Maréchal win in the Vaucluse?
In the Vaucluse, Marion Maréchal has the advantage of being known and of having been part of the local political landscape for a time. Only the former member of the department had been elected under the banner of the predecessor of the National Rally. In addition to having been absent for five years, politics returns by changing labels. The far right is still doing well in the department, especially in the 3th constituency but between the two parties, the RN retains the advantage with voters. During the last presidential election, Marine Le Pen won 29% of the vote in the first round against 10.2% for Éric Zemmour. Marion Maréchal and Stanislas Rigault will therefore have to jostle against the other candidates, in particular against those whom the RN has invested in the constituency which covers Apt, Bonnieux, Cadenet, Cavaillon, Gordes, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and Pertuis.
Not only to present herself in other colors, Marion Maréchal is aiming for a different constituency from the one where she won in 2012. At the time, it was the voters of Carpentras who voted for the young deputy.
Who is Marion Maréchal? Express Biography
Marion Maréchal-Le Pen is the granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, and the niece of Marine Le Pen, leader of the party renamed National Rally in 2017. She joined it herself in 2007 and then launched her political career. The following year, she stood in the municipal elections of Saint-Cloud but the FN list obtained only 6.3% of the votes. In 2010, she appeared on the FN list in the regional elections in Yvelines but won only 8.83% of the vote.
It was in June 2012 that she joined the Palais Bourbon as the youngest deputy in history. At 22, she was elected in the 3rd constituency of Vaucluse with 42.09%. She claims not to be far-right. She also opposed the bill opening up marriage to same-sex couples. At the National Assembly, she is a member of the commission for cultural affairs and education. From 2012 to 2017, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen was also a member of the political bureau of the National Front.
Following the first round of the 2015 regional elections, the list she leads in PACA region comes first, with 40.6% of the vote, ahead of the right-wing list led by Christian Estrosi and that of the Socialists of Christophe Castaner. The latter withdraws from the second round and supports the right to block the FN. Christian Estrosi was finally elected in the second round with 54.78% of the vote. But the National Front still won 42 seats out of the 123 in the region, from which the Socialist Party was completely absent.
In May 2017, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen retired from political life and a few months later participated in the function of the Institute of Social, Economic and Political Sciences (ISSEP), a school of higher education in political science. The young woman is appointed general manager of the establishment. She leaves the management of the school in May 2022 and reduces her administrative duties by taking a role in the school’s international partnerships. This decision is due to the return to politics of Marion Maréchal. The former deputy becomes a supporter of Eric Zemmour, presidential candidate 2022 and therefore an opponent of Marine Le Pen, and ends up joining the Reconquest party! as Executive Vice President.