The image looks like a blended family photo.
In the center, the latest arrivals: Jean-Paul Garraud and Thierry Mariani, former figures of the Les Républicains party, elected MEPs of the National Gathering in 2019 and now leaders of the RN in the regional elections (June 20 and 27) in Occitanie and Provence- Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
They are surrounded by the Gard deputy Nicolas Meizonnet, the MEPs France Jamet and Gilbert Collard, and the mayor of Beaucaire and spokesperson for the RN, Julien Sanchez.
On this morning of Wednesday, June 2, an appointment was given at the port of Grau-du-Roi, near Montpellier, to address the issue of the difficulties encountered by fishermen on the Mediterranean coast and to criticize the installation of wind turbines at sea. Mediterranean.
The little troop has just taken a boat trip.
The sun is shining.
Several media - national and local - are present to cover the communication operation.
Everything is in place to maximize fishing votes.
The candidates of the National Rally for the regional ones in Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Jean-Paul Garraud and Thierry Mariani, surrounded by elected officials from the RN, on June 2, 2021, in Grau-du-Roi.
© Romain Brunet, France 24
>> To read: Safety, omnipresent theme of the regional campaign
Because the strategy of the National Rally in these two regions of the south of France is clear: to convince the still recalcitrant right-wing voters to vote for Marine Le Pen's party thanks to reassuring heads of the list because they come from LR.
In the last regional elections, in 2015, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen and Louis Aliot had failed in Paca and Occitanie despite high scores in the first round.
With Thierry Mariani, former Minister of Transport of Nicolas Sarkozy, and Jean-Paul Garraud, former UMP deputy of the Gironde from 2002 to 2012, the National Rally hopes to change the situation.
. @ ThierryMARIANI in the countryside at Grau-du-Roi, Wednesday June 2 # regionales2021 #PACA #RN pic.twitter.com/66fnqLq1yW
- Romain Brunet (@ romain2dc) June 4, 2021
The two candidates fully understood their mission. It is therefore to voters who are still hesitant that they are addressing themselves. "The only Gaullist alternative is us", launches Thierry Mariani, during the press conference organized at the Fisherman's Bar after the trip to sea. The former minister stresses that the region owes the development of tourism to the mission Racine launched by Charles de Gaulle in 1963. It also evokes the will of President Nicolas Sarkozy to implement a Mediterranean policy during his five-year term. For his part, Jean-Paul Garraud recalls that he supported François Fillon until the end during the last presidential election. "I was on the platform in the rain at the Trocadéro," he insists.
In the bar, around twenty regulars are seated on the terrace.
They listen with a distracted ear to the candidates for the regional elections.
Noon is approaching, glasses of rosé and pastis pass by.
Some RN activists are still present.
They made the trip to meet Thierry Mariani.
The latter may well be the leader of the National Rally in Paca, the neighboring region, his popularity also shines in Occitania.
The star of the day is him.
A political figure in the region
At 62, the MEP is enjoying it.
He pays his round to the table of supporters and takes the opportunity to shoot a few arrows in the direction of his opponent, the LR candidate and outgoing president of the region, Renaud Muselier, all under the watchful eye of the cameras.
Thierry Mariani gives himself the beautiful role.
"I have the impression that he [Renaud Muselier] wants to turn this election into a fight between two bad rappers, Kaaris and Booba style," he jokes, while driving the point home about the controversy over the number territorial officials recruited by the region's communication services over the past six years.
When @ThierryMARIANI compares his duel with @RenaudMuselier to the clash @ KaarisOfficiel1 vs @booba # regionales2021 #PACA #RN pic.twitter.com/9PKWvqlvHm
- Romain Brunet (@ romain2dc) June 4, 2021
Above all, he never ceases to remind people that he will never make a deal with La République en Marche and Emmanuel Macron. The announcement by Prime Minister Jean Castex in early May of the alliance between Renaud Muselier and Secretary of State Sophie Cluzel, followed by heated internal debates at LR between supporters of a frank alliance with LREM and supporters of a independent line, did the business of the RN. While Thierry Mariani collected in opinion studies only 29% of voting intentions at the beginning of March, the latest Ifop poll, published on June 1 by Le Figaro and LCI, grants him 39% of the votes in the first round, against 35 % for Renaud Museler. In the second round, the RN candidate is given the winner in the event of a triangular with the LR candidate and Jean-Laurent Félizia (EELV-PS-PCF). In the event of a withdrawal from the left,Thierry Mariani would be neck and neck with the outgoing president.
"I stuck to my ideas"
The two candidates who are competing for the right-wing electorate in Paca are however old friends.
And for good reason, they both built their political careers in this region about thirty years ago.
When Renaud Muselier became general councilor (1992-1995) then deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône (1993-2002 and 2007-2012), Thierry Mariani established himself as mayor of Valréas (1989-2005) then deputy for Vaucluse (1993- 2010).
The current RN candidate was even the UMP candidate for the 2010 regional Paca against a certain… Jean-Marie Le Pen.
At the time, Thierry Mariani said he was fighting the extreme right, but he already represents a very right-wing sensitivity within the presidential party.
He stood out in particular in 2007, during the examination of the draft law on immigration, with two amendments which have caused much ink to flow: one aimed at authorizing the use of DNA tests at the time of issuance. visas of more than three months in the context of family reunification, the other prohibiting emergency accommodation to people in an irregular situation.
Neither of the two amendments will survive the examination of the text in the Senate.
>> To read: Regional 2021: after the negotiations, place in the countryside
In 2010, with around forty UMP deputies, Thierry Mariani created the collective La Droite populaire, which then wanted to toughen up the tone on security and immigration issues.
Thierry Mariani is also known for his positions on foreign policy, such as his fervent support for the regime of Vladimir Putin - he approves the annexation of Crimea by Russia - or his multiple meetings with Bashar al-Assad in full swing. civil war in Syria.
A sulphurous countryside entourage
The step to take to join the RN was ultimately not that big.
"I have remained faithful to my ideas. However, the ideas that I have always defended, I now find them behind Marine Le Pen and behind the National Rally, he confides to France 24. I consider that today the National Rally is a very republican party. No one sincerely believes that the Republic would be in danger if the National Rally and people like me were to prevail in an area. "
"The ideas that I have always defended, I now find them behind @MLP_officiel and behind the @RNational_off", affirms @ThierryMARIANI # regionales2021 #PACA #RN pic.twitter.com/Y6GvPExLx0
- Romain Brunet (@ romain2dc) June 4, 2021
The assertion is questionable: the proximity between Marine Le Pen and former members of the Union Defense Group (GUD), a far-right student organization known for its violent actions, have been revealed on several occasions in the media and the RN regularly invests in local elections - this is again the case in 2021 - anti-Semitic candidates or candidates with a sulphurous past. Thus, the co-director of the campaign of Thierry Mariani is none other than Philippe Vardon, a figure of the ultra-right identity, sentenced in 2007 for inciting racial hatred. We also find on the RN in Paca list Frédéric Boccaletti, former boss of the Anthinéa bookstore in Toulon, known for his far-right books.
Regardless, consider the strategists of the National Rally, since most voters will stop in the name of Thierry Mariani.
A politician considered respectable, doing well in the media who never balk at inviting him, and which allows Marine Le Pen to pursue his strategy of normalization of the RN.
. @ ThierryMARIANI in the countryside in Arles, Wednesday June 2 # regionales2021 #PACA #RN pic.twitter.com/VRKYQX9lxg
- Romain Brunet (@ romain2dc) June 4, 2021
Moreover, when, a few hours after leaving the fishermen of Grau-du-Roi, the former minister goes on a tour of traders in Arles, it is this new image of the party that he is trying to sell to voters. He is accompanied for the occasion by the pair of RN candidates for departmental in the canton of Arles, Alexia Flayol and Enzo Alias-Blanes. Both are less than 30 years old, a smile likely to appease the most cautious and a past free of any slippage. "Between the National Front and the National Rally, there is another generation", assures Thierry Mariani at the microphone of France 24.
The visit is carried out at a rapid pace, the RN candidate having a train to take to Paris, where the Franceinfo platform awaits him at the very beginning of the evening.
Barely enough time to say hello to the traders, to quickly introduce the young Alexia and Enzo, and to hand out a leaflet.
However, the discussion sometimes gets under way.
And here again, Thierry Mariani is tactful, preferring to refer to the figures of his former party rather than to Marine Le Pen.
Discussion between @ThierryMARIANI and Jean-Baptiste Meloni, building contractor in Arles, on the difficulties in finding labor # regionales2021 #PACA #RN pic.twitter.com/K1S8fmEbF9
- Romain Brunet (@ romain2dc) June 4, 2021
To a building contractor who told him of his difficulty in finding labor, the former republican, for lack of a published program, cited as an example several measures taken by President LR of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region , Laurent Wauquiez. Sometimes, an approximate and deviant answer on another subject makes it possible to convince the interlocutors. But with this entrepreneur, it is not enough. "I talk to him about construction, he talks to me about agriculture, I come back to construction, he talks to me about safety and when I ask him his position on the bypass [a motorway bypass project in the city divides the inhabitants of Arles, Editor's note], he tells me that it is not the responsibility of the region, "regrets Jean-Baptise Meloni.
For this 33-year-old entrepreneur who is very critical of "social dumping imposed by the European Union", "there is no difference between Thierry Mariani and Renaud Muselier".
"They are Europeanists, they both voted yes in the 2005 referendum [on the draft European Constitution]", he asserts.
On the other hand, Jean-Baptiste Meloni likes Enzo Alias-Blanes.
"He is a young person who moves, who commits, that's good. I will surely vote for him in the departmental", he admits.
And the regional ones?
The pout betrays a certain embarrassment.
"It might be Mariani, but really by default…"
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