He claims to join “the only party” capable of “righting our country”. After the former boss of the European border police (Frontex), Fabrice Leggeri, then the essayist, Malika Sorel, the former spokesperson for the Independent Union of Police Commissioners, Matthieu Valet, announced this Tuesday April 9 his registration on the National Rally list for the European elections in June.
Approached by the head of the list, Jordan Bardella, “a few weeks ago”, he said, speaking to CNews and Europe 1to now be part of a “great popular movement”, “pro-French” which will “change the lives of the leaders”.
Former deputy head of the anti-crime brigade (BAC) of Val-de-Marne, then union leader, Mathieu Valet was keen to recall his Spanish and modest origins, raised “in a 15-story tower in a city in Lille” . “I was given nothing […]I went for everything with my teeth”, he insisted. His rallying was immediately greeted by the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, who wished a “welcome” to this “man on the ground in a France prey to wildness”, on the social network X.
Police officers who became RN deputies
If the police officer is the first in his profession to include his name on the RN list for the European elections, he is on the other hand the last in a long list to join the far-right party. This is evidenced by the rise of four former police officers, elected RN deputies during the last legislative elections in 2022.
Starting with Romain Baudry, deputy for the 15th constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône, who entered the Palais Bourbon on his first attempt. Gendarme for two years, prison guard for five years, then police officer, he claims to defend the purchasing power of the French and work for their “security”. “As a police officer, I have known three presidents of the Republic: Sarkozy, Hollande and Macron. I know what they are capable of and above all what they are incapable of,” he asserted a few hours before his victory, in June 2022 .
In the National Assembly, Romain Baudry sits alongside the police officer and instructor, Michaël Taverne, RN deputy for the 12th constituency of the North. Former executive within Debout la France, he left Nicolas Dupont-Aignan’s party in 2019 to join the RN which remains “the only political force that can bring people together” and make “ideas win”. Same tone for Stéphane Rambaud, retired from the national police and now deputy for the third constituency of Var, according to whom the far-right party is “the only party to defend common sense”.
Finally, in 2022, it is also the former peacekeeper, Antoine Villedieu, who joined the benches of the Palais Bourbon. Double world champion in MMA (mixed martial arts) and former spokesperson for the independent professional police federation – a union known to be close to the far right – he is now a deputy for the first constituency of Haute-Saône.
More than one in two police officers vote RN
Unlucky candidate in the 2022 legislative elections, Bruno Attal is another example of a police officer who joined a far-right movement. However, his choice fell on the Reconquest party of Eric Zemmour. If he only obtained 5.38% of the votes in 2022, his frequent appearances on the set of Do not touch My TValongside Cyril Hanouna as well as his videos posted on the YouTube account of the association “Touche pas à mon flic” have made him a highly publicized personality.
To justify his entry into politics, Bruno Attal highlighted themes dear to Reconquête: immigration, delinquency, great replacement… “80 to 90% of the people I have arrested in my career for offenses, even crimes, are of African or North African ethnicity. With Eric Zemmour, these kids, we could have saved them,” he insisted in 2022.
Subjects which are more generally raised by many police officers, who say they are targeted by “attacks, delinquency and popular vindictiveness”, as reported by police officer Cyril Hemardinquer, departmental delegate of the RN in Loiret, to France Inter. And added: “After a while, the police officer gets a little fed up and turns to a politician who is ready to take into account his distress on a human, material and financial level.”
And, according to the latest studies on the subject, it is the National Rally which is attracting more and more attention in the ranks of the police. According to one investigation by the Sciences Po Political Research Center (Cevipof), carried out in May 2021, 60% of police officers intended to give their vote to the RN for the 2022 presidential election. In comparison, they were 57% in 2017 and 30% in 2012. This development is d elsewhere sensitive since the election of François Hollande in 2012, we can read in the Cevipof study.