For the opening of the XVII.

Rassemblement National (RN) congresses flutter blue, white and red flags all over Perpignan.

Mayor Louis Aliot wanted it that way and did not wait for the national holiday on July 14th to have the streets flagged.

The city administration is entirely at the service of the right-wing extremist party at the weekend.

“Stand together for France” is the motto of the gathering of party cadres and ordinary members in the city's congress center.

Michaela Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

  • Follow I follow

    A week after the heavy losses in the regional and cantonal elections, Marine Le Pen spreads the certainty of victory.

    “Marine, Marine!” Shouts resounded in the hall as she was confirmed as party leader with 98.35 percent approval.

    The electronic vote of the members replaces the candidate for the presidential election next April.

    Several enthusiastically wave tricolor flags in the hall.

    Le Pen doesn't want to go back to the provocations of the past

    But pessimistic voices can also be heard in the hallways. Will the 52-year-old make it to the Elysée Palace on the third attempt? “Our greatest victory is ideological,” said Le Pen in her closing speech. It is now a matter of converting it into a victory at the polls. She says there is no going back to the Front National, to the provocations and demarcations of the past. Instead, it preaches "unity". “We are a party that is open to everyone,” she says and promises a “government of national unity”.

    On the roof terrace of the convention center, Le Pen had previously denied doubts about her election strategy in an interview with journalists. With her cuddling course of "calm power" ("La force tranquille") she demobilized her voters, the critics say. Le Pen, on the other hand, maintains that the low voter turnout of 33 percent alone testifies to the lack of interest in the regional elections. “It will be different in the presidential election,” she says. Your party has been declared dead so many times, she sighs. When it starts to drizzle, she rushes inside, "otherwise my hair will frizz".

    Her 93-year-old father, party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, demanded in one of his video messages that the course must become “more virulent” again. She doesn't even think about it, she says, and mumbles that the old man should be left alone. “Should I grow a beard?” Then she announced somewhat full-bodied a “feminization” of the party committees. She has increased the number of members on the Executive Council from ten to fifteen, including four women on the decision-making body.

    She does not regret the scolding of the voters.

    Visibly disappointed by the poor election result, she reprimanded the supporters who did not go to the polls.

    "She speaks like a shareholder who is demanding his dividend," scoffed Eric Zemmour.

    The right-wing extremist publicist now wants to run himself.

    She is not afraid of competition from the right, says Le Pen confidently: "I am combative, I have no doubts."

    The RN mayor's record in Perpignan is poor

    She is sure of the applause from the party delegates in the hall. But the Rassemblement National has long been an established party that revolves around itself. So far, Mayor Aliot has little to show in Perpignan's “shop window”. With almost 120,000 inhabitants, the Catalan city is the largest that has ever been conquered by the RN. But in the cantonal and regional elections, the voters punished the party. In all constituencies (cantons) of Perpignan, Aliot's party came away empty-handed.