Marine Le Pen was elected Thursday by acclamation president of the National Rally group in the National Assembly, where she was the only candidate, AFP noted.

“We have received only one candidacy for the presidency of the RN group, that of Marine Le Pen. I will ask my dear comrades, dear colleagues, to proceed to a vote not by a show of hands but by acclamation”, declared the president session and deputy for the North Sébastien Chenu. The 89 deputies of the group then rose to applaud their new president.

The group also nominated Sébastien Chenu as candidate for the presidency of the National Assembly, and confirmed Jean-Philippe Tanguy, deputy for the Somme, as candidate for the Finance Committee, according to a statement released just after the vote.

The RN is also seeking the posts of vice-president and quaestor in the Assembly.

Arriving at the meeting, Marine Le Pen was pleased that Emmanuel Macron, in his televised speech on Wednesday evening, “intended, unlike his Minister for Relations with Parliament Olivier Véran, (…) to consider that all political forces deserve to be respected”.

But she judged that he “did not understand what had happened” in the second round of the legislative elections by asking the opposition to “take the first step” to build compromises.

“It is up to the majority to take the first step to amend its project” and “take into account the opinion of the voters”. “The functioning of the National Assembly will force it to understand this reality,” she added.

Given her new duties at the head of the group, Mrs. Le Pen had indicated that she would not take over the presidency of the party, sought by the current occupant of the post ad interim Jordan Bardella, and perhaps Louis Aliot, vice- president of the movement and mayor of Perpignan.

Marine Le Pen was then to introduce this meeting by evoking “the role of a deputy”, then Mr. Chenu to explain “what is a good deputy”, and finally Jordan Bardella, who is an MEP, was to speak about “the articulation of the group with the party”.

The 89 deputies have yet to discuss the formal organization of the group, whose secretary general must be Renaud Labaye, former chief of staff of Marine Le Pen during the presidential election.

06/23/2022 14:52:37 –         Paris (AFP) –         © 2022 AFP