While the far-right National Rally (RN) party has been saying for several months that it was ready for early legislative elections, its failure to obtain a majority in the National Assembly has highlighted the party’s difficulty in investing and training credible candidates in each constituency. Party president Jordan Bardella ” assumes its share of responsibility “, when, at the same time, the party’s general director Gilles Pennelle resigned on Monday July 8.
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On the evening of the dissolution of the National Assembly decided by French President Emmanuel Macron, the leaders of the National Rally swore with their hand on their heart that their party was already ready for elections. early legislative electionsIt must be said that the far-right party had been calling for a dissolution for several months and was preparing for it with its ” Matignon Plan “.
For two years, RN executives have been assuring that they were ready for a return to the polls by investing heavily in candidates who were in line with the party’s strategy of de-demonization. This was in anticipation of potential early legislative elections. By qualifying 446 candidates for the second round out of a total of 577 constituencies, the RN already saw itself sending Jordan Bardella to Matignon on the evening of July 7 and making him French Prime Minister. But the plan of the same name concocted by Gilles Pennelle, the party’s general director who resigned on Monday July 8, finally showed its limits during the inter-round period.
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” Black sheep ” And “ casting errors »
Because if the RN only won 143 seats in the end – a figure well below the projections of certain polling institutes the day after the first round – it is of course because of the Republican Front which was put in place to prevent the far-right party from obtaining a majority in the Assembly. But also because the ” Matignon plan ” has invested dozens of candidates with problematic profiles or statements whose past resurfaced during the campaign.
Racist, anti-Semitic, conspiratorial, homophobic or xenophobic remarks or candidates who have been part of violent nationalist organisations or who have been convicted by the courts, Mediapart has identified nearly 106 problematic candidates. Jordan Bardella has long limited himself to describing them as simple ” black sheep “, ensuring that “ in 99.9 % of cases there is absolutely no difficulty “, before finally acknowledging on the TF1 set the day after the second round ” casting errors “that the RN” pay very dearly ».
Lack of preparation of some candidates
According to the historian of the extreme right and deputy director of Conspiracy Watch Valérie Igounet, it is difficult to say whether this has really penalized the RN, even if ” This gave arguments to the Republican Front “Because more than this plethora of problematic candidates, which part of the RN electorate is happy with without too much concern, it is ” above all, certain filmed sequences, particularly on regional news, which showed candidates having difficulty expressing themselves ” which have put the party’s credibility and its ability to govern to the test, believes Valérie Igounet.
As during the 2022 legislative campaign, the period between the two rounds once again highlighted the level of unpreparedness of certain candidates who were unable to keep up appearances and present the party’s programme during local debates against their opponents.
This was when others simply refused to debate, or even to campaign, choosing – often on the advice of certain local executives well aware of the shortcomings of certain candidates – to expose themselves as little as possible. In total, 21 RN candidates refused or cancelled debates on local channels of France Blueand some phantom RN candidates – like Maïté Pouget in Corrèze, Monique Grisetti in Marseille or Élodie Babin in Loiret – qualified for the second round without ever campaigning or almost.
The crucial issue of training activists
The training of its activists is an issue that is not new for the National Rally. Training activists is something very complicated to set up. “, explains Valérie Igounet, who recalls that during the Bruno Mégret years (1987-1998), the National Front had decided to provide very comprehensive training to its executives. It was about learning to speak, learning not to say certain words and using semantics that would not offend voters, but also the opposing camp, getting in front of a camera and practicing. At the moment, we feel that things are not there at all. “, analyzes the historian.
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Since his election as head of the RN in November 2022, Jordan Bardella has been well aware of the importance of training activists, deciding to make it a priority. This is what led to the creation of the online training platform “Campus Héméra” in March 2023, led by former pollster Jérôme Sainte-Marie, himself defeated in the second round of the legislative elections in the Gap constituency.
Launched with great fanfare, the Héméra project – which aimed to offer a ” theoretical, cultural school ” to RN executives – has nevertheless remained at a standstill. Only one meeting of activists has been organized in the fall of 2023 since the launch of the project, whose website is moribund.
” Normalization does not reach the activist base »
The RN is also paying for its lack of local roots. Some have criticized Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella for staying in Paris, rather than also campaigning to allow certain candidates lacking notoriety to benefit from their immense popularity.
” The normalization process wanted by the RN leadership has worked on many levels, but in every election, there is always this problem of training its activists. Normalization does not reach the activist baseexplains Valérie Igounet. This is a fundamental issue to be resolved for the RN. As long as we see candidates who struggle to express themselves and who fail to put forward the general ideas of the party, it is obvious that it cannot work. “.
The day after the second round, Jordan Bardella made his mea culpa. ” There are efforts to be made both on the professionalization of our local establishment, perhaps on the choice of a certain number of candidates. I say it clearly, in some constituencies, the choices we made were not the right ones,” declared the president of the RN on TF1. Marine Le Pen, who was just re-elected president of the RN group in the Assembly on Wednesday July 10, is convinced of this: “ The tide is rising. It has not risen high enough this time, but it continues to rise and, therefore, our victory is only delayed. ” assured the MP for Pas-de-Calais.