Marine Le Pen hailed Monday, the day after the first round of the legislative elections, a “strong dynamic” of her party, and said she hoped for the election of “tens of deputies” in the second round to form a group in the National Assembly.
“Defeatism does not exist on the ground. (…) We are here, we are there, we have been in strong momentum since 2017”, said all smiles, from Rouvroy, in his stronghold of Pas-de- Calais, the presidential runner-up, who struggled to be heard during the campaign against the Nupes-Ensemble! duel.
The acting president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, raised the possibility of having between 35 and 40 deputies. The first round “opens at least the way (to) the multiplication by five of the number of our deputies”, he judged during a press conference in Paris. The RN had obtained eight deputies in 2017, including one related, but one of them has since changed sides.
The RN gathered 18.68% of the vote in the first round, against 13.2% in 2017, but remains behind the left-wing coalition Nupes (25.66%) and the presidential majority Together! (25.75%).
The RN qualified in the second round in more than 200 constituencies, out of 577, and is in the lead in “108” of them, according to Ms. Le Pen. The RN is also present in five triangles.
Mr. Bardella cited 18 departments in which the RN qualifies in all constituencies and can achieve a “grand slam”, including outside the areas of strength of the RN, in the north and south of the country.
The RN and the Nupes find themselves in a duel in around sixty constituencies, where the French will be able, according to him, to “block” “the Burkini coalition made up of Islamo-leftists”.
“We are the only ones to be in reality in strong momentum since 2017, because between 2017 and today the left and the far left combined are in decline or stagnation, En Marche is in strong decline, LR is in capilotade and the National Rally is on the rise,” said the outgoing MP for Pas-de-Calais.
The far-right official said she hoped for the election in the second round of “dozens of deputies as long as our voters move”, while RN voters, working classes and young people in the lead, are more inclined to abstain.
She criticized the Nupes, a “cardboard opposition”, which is “in full maneuver with En Marche”.
Marine Le Pen also “wished” that the voters of Eric Zemmour’s party, Reconquest!, eliminated everywhere, would vote for her movement.
Mr. Bardella pointed out that Reconquest! had not prevented the RN from qualifying “in winnable constituencies”, qualified its strategy as “a dead end” and called on its voters “to realize that the path we are building (…) will lead us to power.”
By collecting 4,248,626 votes, the RN will also be able to count each year on at least 6.9 million euros of public money, since each vote won gives the right to 1.64 euros per year. A welcome windfall for a party in debt of more than 20 million euros.
06/13/2022 15:25:48 – Paris (AFP) – © 2022 AFP
