Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.

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ALAIN ROBERT / SIPA

  • After disappointing municipal elections, the National Rally hopes to uncheck at least one region next June.

  • The RN wants to nationalize the campaign and hopes to uncheck a region for 2022.

  • Marine Le Pen should lead an active campaign in support of the candidates invested by the party.

A springboard for 2022?

Three months from the regional and departmental, scheduled for next June, the National Gathering is pursuing its strategy of electoral conquest.

Marine Le Pen wishes to give a national echo to these polls to prepare her campaign.

The objective: to use the local level as a stepping stone towards the Elysée.

The president of the RN hopes to win at least one region, which the flame party has never succeeded, to give pledges of its credibility in view of the presidential term.

"A dress rehearsal before 2022"

At the National Assembly, it is repeated that these elections will be of crucial importance for the presidential election.

"It will be a mood ballot, the last before 2022. There will therefore be a national dimension for the voters as for the parties, because the poll will give an impetus for the following months", advance the MEP Philippe Olivier, close adviser by Marine Le Pen.

The invested candidates are already campaigning on national themes, such as security, although the latter is not, however, a regional competence.

“Transport safety can be a prerogative of the regions, and will be one of our main axes.

But we are also talking about a territorial divide, rurality abandoned by public policies, localism and short circuits… ”, lists Gilles Pennelle, member of the national office and head of the RN list for regional in Brittany.

The campaign slogan, “A region that protects you”, is also part of a more global protectionist strategy.

"Ten months from the presidential election, we will not escape the fact that this election will be perceived as a dress rehearsal for 2022," he said.

Staging the gathering… without a flashy name

To show that it has evolved since its defeat in the supreme election in 2017, the National Front, now RN, wishes to stage the rally through the choice of its head of the list.

The party has therefore put forward its rare right-wing catches in recent years: Jean-Paul Garraud in Occitanie and Thierry Mariani in Paca.

The presence of these two former LRs, already elected to the 2019 Europeans under the colors of the RN, however shows that the party is still struggling to attract new executives.

"We are betting on openness, with Laurent Jacobelli in the Grand Est, from Debout la France, the ex-rebellious Andréa Kotarac in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, or Hervé Juvin, from civil society [already RN MEP since 2019] in Pays de Loire ”, defends Philippe Olivier.

"We will also have young shoots like Alexandre Edwige Diaz [33 years old] in New Aquitaine and Aleksandar Nikolic [34 years old], in Center-Val-de-Loire".

Names much less high-sounding than in 2015, where Marine Le Pen, Marion Maréchal and Florian Philippot were in the running.

To give a little more media weight to the campaign, the vice-president of the party and head of the last European list Jordan Bardella will finally be a candidate in Ile-de-France, contrary to what he said again last September.

It is also expected that the boss of the RN will lead an active campaign.

“Democracy cannot be completely stifled by this health crisis.

The Covid-19 does not prevent travel, so I will support our candidates, ”said Marine Le Pen during an interview with

20 Minutes

.

The RN predicts the end of the "republican front"

Because the member for Pas-de-Calais wishes to bring down one or more regions, after rather disappointing municipal elections.

The RN has not won more cities than in 2014 (ten) and has declined in local establishment, losing half of its municipal councilors.

“Winning a region would contribute to our march to power.

If we succeed, we will demonstrate to the French that we are capable of managing large communities, as Louis Aliot is already doing in Perpignan, and that we are ready to lead France, ”adds Gilles Pennelle.

The party says it is convinced that the anti-RN roadblock, which took place during the 2015 regional meetings, no longer exists.

“The left will not be scuttled as in 2015 [it had withdrawn in the second round to beat the RN in two regions], or it will definitely disappear from the French political game a few months before the presidential election.

There will be triangulars in several regions, where we can win, ”says Philippe Olivier.

By nationalizing the campaign, Marine Le Pen is however taking a risk.

If no region falls into the hands of the RN, it would be seen as a failure for the party a few months before the presidential election.

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  • Elections

  • Marine Le Pen

  • Region

  • National gathering

  • Regional elections