How to recognize an elected member of the National Rally (RN)? He is “on the phone, like all my friends”, said Louis Aliot, mayor of Perpignan, including himself in the lot. Ten days before the March 4 deadline, the headquarters of the far-right party has taken on the air of a call center. Tuesday, February 22, Marine Le Pen suspended her field campaign to devote herself to collecting, while she still lacks around thirty “yes” from elected officials to reach the bare minimum of 500 promises. To date, the Constitutional Council has endorsed 393 sponsorships in favor of the RN candidate, 350 for Eric Zemmour and 442 for Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
At the beginning of January, already, Marine Le Pen had said ” struggle “ ; here she is forced to stage this galley. “What Republic are we in for me to be deprived of my sponsorships?” », she is indignant in a video appeal to mayors. The 2017 finalist points to a worrying democratic problem, without skimping on the conspiratorial tone when she accuses “some politicians [de] pressure our democracy to steal the election from the French”. In another video, we see her pleading on the phone, her feet on her desk, with a mayor who we guess is refractory: “It is absolutely necessary that I can be a candidate, it is not possibleshe lets go of war weary. It’s in your hands. »
RN executives are keeping a low profile. “It’s boring, you have to move! », got angry Marine Le Pen Monday, during a national office. MEP RN André Rougé, his “overseas gentleman”, suffered a memorable blower. Three out of five sponsorships from elected officials in Reunion may not arrive in time, for lack of anticipation of the mailing deadline. A failure all the more unfortunate since she had gone to the island, at the end of December 2021, to meet elected officials.
« It’s never been so hard”
The elected officials and bosses of federations had nevertheless set to work. Laurent Jacobelli, collection manager, holds a collective videoconference every week to ensure mobilization, without meeting his objectives. Even Thierry Légier, Marine Le Pen’s bodyguard, has been involved in canvassing for months, during his hunting trips with elected officials, in Sologne or in the Grand-Est. But the headquarters of the RN receives endless “hesitant lists”these mayors ” neither yes nor no “ that the party’s headliners still have to convince.
Like other candidates, Marine Le Pen has recently relied on external help. David Lisnard, LR mayor of Cannes and president of the Association of Mayors of France, will sponsor Jean-Luc Mélenchon to signify that a signature is not worth political support. “With this, you are protected”, slip to the mayors the executives of the RN. François Bayrou brought together nearly 200 elected officials in a bank of sponsorships to help candidates registering more than 10% of voting intentions. Marine Le Pen and the mayor of Pau had already found common cause on proportional representation and the “bank of democracy”. “It’s the same idea: we believe that pluralism is the key to trustargues François Bayrou. This opposes the confiscation of all representation and power. In the MoDem, there is no caporalization. »
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