- Marine Le Pen came to support the candidates of Hérault in Sète this Saturday.
- She particularly welcomed Sébastien Pacull, former president of the LR federation vying for the town hall of Sète, supported by the National Rally.
- For the RN, this defector is a symbol that the dykes are jumping with the local right in the great South.
From our journalist in Sète,
At the southern end of Sète, the Môle Saint-Louis is impassive. For more than three centuries, this long stone dyke has protected the town and its old port from the assault of the waves for 650 meters. A few steps away, in front of the Imperial hotel, a small troop is agitated. Under a blinding sun, Marine Le Pen gets out of the car.
The president of the National Rally came this Saturday to support her candidates in the Hérault, and in particular the head of the list in the corner, Sébastien Pacull, ex-president of the Federation Les Républicains. A month away from the municipal elections, the patron saint of the RN wants to show that at the local level, another dyke is crumbling: the one separating her party from the “traditional right”.
"I decided to make the union of the rights to make break dikes".
Marine Le Pen also evokes a “symbolic” movement. "I am here to support Mr. Pacull, who is one of the representatives of the RN's capacity for assembly and openness," she said, in a press conference, evoking the right, but also the left. "This is a novelty for our movement, a form of cultural revolution marked by our name change [the National Front become National Rally], a reflection of our desire to constitute this new political divide: national pole against globalists".
In front of a dozen other candidates from the department, the interested party confirms, in his own way: “I decided to create a union list of rights and have dikes in the Hérault […] Some people think I should to be ashamed of being supported by the RN, that I should hide it. I'm proud of it, ”he claims.
"No dyke has given way, the RN label, it's all folklore"
The day before, since his permanent campaign in the center of the town, Sébastien Pacull tells us behind the scenes of his candidacy. Originally, the influential Robert Ménard, elected mayor of Béziers in 2014 with the support of the National Front. The former founder of Reporter without Frontier pushes in October the one who is still responsible departmental Republicans to form a union list, as he did, six years ago. "Robert, it's a binder," smiled Pacull. “The support of the RN came afterwards, but the activists here were just waiting for that. When there is a pretty woman on the track, everyone wants to dance with her. Some fantasize, I do it, ”he boasts, lighting a cigarette.
At the end of November, Pacull launched an assault on the town hall, supported by the RN, Debout la France, and the Christian Democratic Party. The former deputy wishes to bring down the outgoing mayor, François Commeinhes, 70, who is seeking a fourth term with the double investiture La République en marche and LR. "The promises of 2014 were not kept, and his platform of support for Emmanuel Macron last June was experienced as a betrayal by the activists," he breathes.
A little lower, on the quays, at the HQ of the city council, it is the departure of the former ally who is experienced as a betrayal. “No dyke has given way, the RN label, all that is folklore. The reality is that Mr. Pacull wanted to be a Caliph in place of the Caliph, tackle Vincent Sabatier, road assistant. So he planted a knife in our back, leaving with a handful of people. It is a disappointment because he would have waited six more years, he would not have needed to ally with Marine Le Pen ”.
Jumping jetty or mere opportunism?
At the head of the RN, we rub our hands. The party is betting on the big scores achieved in the last elections (30.6% in the 2019 European elections, 44% in the second round of the 2017 legislative elections) to bring down the city, despite the modest 12.7% achieved in the last municipal elections. But beyond the victory, the party wishes to highlight the junction that is being made at the local level. “Sébastien is contagious, when he coughs in Sète, we catch a cold in Lunel, Agde, or Frontignan. This Pacull effect is spreading in the department and even beyond, "smiles Jean-Louis Cousin, RN departmental delegate and candidate for Agde.
"The dykes are dropping everywhere in the great South, in the Hérault as in the Vaucluse or the Var," insists Gilles Pennelle, campaign manager for the municipalities. "The next election will accelerate the breakdown of Republicans, because the base has been thinking like we have for years on immigration, identity, security. However, the Macron-compatible management of LR no longer meets their expectations ”.
The local right, of course, is not of the same opinion. “There is a shallot race between Le Pen and Ménard to poach, but there is no bleeding or leap that jumps. No major mayor or elected official has switched to the RN. Out of our 2,000 members in Hérault, there are perhaps thirty who left by career, because the RN had places to give, ”says Arnaud Julien. The departmental secretary LR recalls the rule set by the party. “As soon as a member flirts with the far right, he is fired from our country. Our DNA is de Gaulle and Simone Veil, not the OAS and Pétain ”.
If the RN wants to make Sébastien Pacull a symbol, it is that at the departmental as well as national level, it always struggles to poach. The candidate for mayor of Sète is convinced that others will follow, and that a victory next March will speed things up. “There is always a first who dives into the water. Others usually wait to know if it is good for swimming. ” And make sure, perhaps, that there is no risk of drowning.
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- The Republicans
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- Marine Le Pen
- Sète
- Languedoc-Roussillon