Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.
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Bertrand GUAY / AFP
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan is a candidate for the 2022 presidential election.
The sovereignist deputy for Essonne, who had allied with Marine Le Pen in 2017, hopes to bring together voters from the right and from the National Rally.
But the candidate is now isolated, and has seen many officials from his party leave.
He was one of the first to jump into the race for 2022. It was last September, almost six months already.
"The polls are starting to be correct, I was buried a bit quickly," says Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.
The candidate Debout la France, given about 7% in the surveys, is convinced of his presidential destiny.
"With the health crisis, the French have understood that serious patriotism, which I have been defending for twenty years, is the only way to redress the country".
But the sovereignist candidate, who hopes to be a rallying point for voters of the National Rally as well as those of the right, appears very isolated.
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan has already tried to conquer the Elysee Palace in 2017. After obtaining 4.7% on the evening of April 23, he had made an alliance with Marine Le Pen to beat Emmanuel Macron.
But the agreement, which had earned him a flood of criticism, seems far away.
The deputy for Essonne does not fail, now, to scratch the patron of the National Rally.
His failed debate, he thinks, showed the French his inability to govern.
“Marine Le Pen is Emmanuel Macron's life insurance.
His economic program is not serious and will always prevent him from winning, ”he said.
The fact remains that the 59-year-old enarque has few arguments in his pocket to supplant a candidate, given more than 25% in the first round of the future election.
"He thinks he has a national destiny, but he is wrong", launches an RN executive
He himself struggles to emphasize the differences between his program and that of his former ally, who has given up leaving the euro and is thinking of giving up retirement at 60 years old.
“I don't have the same personality or the same history, I have experience in the field, as a manager.
I am as popular in the LR electorate as in the RN, and victory against Macron will be the ability of these electorates to merge, ”assures the former mayor of Yerres (Essonne).
In an attempt to win, he even launched the idea of a primary open to all sovereignists.
A proposal that continues to make the headquarters of the National Rally smile.
“He thinks he has a national destiny, but he is wrong.
Even over-inflated in the polls, no one imagines Nicolas Dupont-Aignan in the second round in 2022, tackle Gilles Pennelle, member of the national office and head of the RN list for the regional ones in Brittany.
His only chance to apply his program is to join us because he now divides the national camp.
The executives of his party have understood this… ”
The "twisted blows" of his old friends
Because Nicolas Dupont-Aignan is today captain of a small ship in crisis.
About sixty local and national executives, including his deputy Lisa Haddad and the former number 2 of the Jean-Philippe Tanguy party, have left Debout France to support Marine Le Pen.
“He is in a front opposition to the RN to save his post as deputy, in a right-wing constituency.
But that leads him to a political impasse because Marine Le Pen is the only one capable of beating Macron.
Becoming the Arlette Laguiller of sovereignty is a waste, ”severely judges his former protégé, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, now coordinator of a collective attached to the RN.
The person concerned minimizes these departures, even if we feel he is touched by what he calls the “twisted blows” of his old friends.
"A Gaullist is always isolated from the castes and the old soups," he sighs, "but I am convinced that many will come and help me".
On the other side, however, the one who left the UMP in 2007, has even less support.
His alliance with Marine Le Pen and his shattering declarations, on the dismissal of Emmanuel Macron or the fire of Notre-Dame, made him infrequent.
"Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, that does not interest me at all," slips a deputy Les Républicains close to Xavier Bertrand.
“He's a guy who was with us, and he clearly showed that he didn't want to disappear in Lepénie.
So, we may not agree with him on everything, but we need his voices to reach the second round, ”however tempers an LR executive, who hopes for a rapprochement.
Our dossier on the 2022 presidential election
Even isolated, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, him, continues his journey, encouraged by the good figures of his Facebook page.
“I'm offering another choice for the huge middle class that can't take it anymore.
We must put an end to the disaster of the Macron presidency.
If he is re-elected in 2022, the country I love is ruined ”.
Politics
Standing up France: Nicolas Dupont-Aignan's party is emptying its executives, gone to fill the RN
Politics
Standing France: Nicolas Dupont-Aignan faces a sling on his political line
Stand up France
National gathering
Presidential election
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan
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