Marine Le Pen said on Tuesday that she was “convinced” that her niece Marion Maréchal was going to join the campaign of her far-right rival Eric Zemmour. Asked on BFMTV about a possible rallying of her niece to Eric Zemmour, the candidate of the National Rally replied: “You can remove possible”. “Is it a matter of days? relaunches the journalist. “Yes,” said the candidate.
“I am convinced of it,” she added. “It saddens me personally and it plunges me into an abyss of perplexity politically” because “I am the only one who can win against Emmanuel Macron”, affirmed Marine Le Pen.
“It’s a choice that is a personal choice that has to be made by her. If it was about pressuring her for emotional reasons, I would have betrayed the respect I have for free will,” she pointed out. At the end of January, Marine Le Pen had judged “brutal, violent”, that her niece was thinking of joining Eric Zemmour in the race for the Elysée, insisting on the “personal aspect” of their relationship, saying with emotion to have ” brought up with (her) sister during the first years of her life”.
Ahead of Zemmour in the polls
Marion Maréchal, former FN deputy (now RN), then told Le Figaro that she “leaned for Éric Zemmour” but that there was also “a family subject” with his aunt. Several elected officials, including a leading member of the RN, MEP Nicolas Bay, and the sole senator of the party Stéphane Ravier, both ideologically close to Marion Maréchal, have joined Eric Zemmour’s campaign in recent weeks.
In the latest polls, Marine Le Pen comes second in the first round with two to four points ahead of her competitor Eric Zemmour, and is beaten in the second round by Emmanuel Macron.