Horace: Marine Le Pen's mystery advisers
Audio 02:37
Marine Le Pen, president of the National Rally © RFI
By: Anne Soetemondt Follow
5 mins
Turn the page of the debate.
Since Marine Le Pen has clearly set the course for 2022, her clan has been doing everything to convince observers and voters that, this time, she is ready.
Around the president of the National Rally to prepare for the deadline: the Horace collective.
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Originally, the Horaces are a family in ancient Rome who paid a heavy price in battle against a rival city.
Two dead brothers and a third who ends up winning, battling heroically against many opponents to give Rome the final victory.
The analogy with a Marine Le Pen alone against all and who would win in 2022 is not difficult to make.
Who are the Horaces of the 21st century?
Created in 2016, this collective would be made up - we are told - of representatives of "
senior administration, business leaders, tax specialists, civil servants in ministries
" who wish Marine Le Pen a victory and work for her.
One to two meetings per week.
In video at the moment, they had taken place in person before the pandemic.
Unofficial objective: to turn the page of the debate and the incompetence trial against Marine Le Pen;
official objective: "to
concrete, provide notes on the economy, security, immigration or even ecology
".
An immense work to build "
the reconstruction program
" of a country "
at the end of a war
" that will have to be offered to the French during the campaign.
Who is behind the Horaces?
Mystery.
It is as difficult to meet its members as it is impossible to attend a meeting.
A handful of names are known including that of Jean-Paul Garraud, former magistrate and former LR deputy.
Rallied with the RN from the Europeans, he works on questions of justice but refuses to give names because "as
soon as mentioned, as soon as landed
".
"
They can lose their job
" abounds the MEP RN Philippe Olivier.
A sign that the normalization of the party so desired by Marine Le Pen is far from being completed.
Or that the Horaces are so few in number that they prefer to stay in the shadows.
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Marine Le Pen
Presidential France 2022
French politics