Fréjus (AFP)
Marine Le Pen plunged into the presidential campaign Sunday in Fréjus, defending French "civilization" and its "freedoms", in a nod to the identity of the polemicist and potential candidate Eric Zemmour.
She also passed the reins of the party to her very young (26 years old on Monday) number two Jordan Bardella, who attacked the opponents of the candidate for the Elysee frontally, foremost among them Emmanuel Macron.
The presidential election in 2022 "will not only be a choice of society, as the previous polls have been able to be, it will be a choice of civilization", declared Marine Le Pen, in front of some 900 activists gathered in the Roman theater of the city , who chanted "Marine president".
"There will be only two alternatives" in 2022, "either the dilution of France by deconstruction and (migratory) submersion, or the salutary leap that will bring France into the third millennium around the idea of Nation", added Ms. Le Pen, in an allusion to the theory of the "great replacement" (of the European population by a non-European immigrant population) praised by Mr. Zemmour, of which she does not share the conspiratorial aspect.
"In France, the French have the right to live like the French. The delinquents will be put out of harm's way, the French delinquents in prison, the foreigners on the plane", she promised, without going so far. 'to "remigration", which aims to return all foreigners, delinquents or not, to their country of origin, preferred by Eric Zemmour.
- Trump -
Showing herself as the "president of French freedoms", her campaign slogan, she proposed "free trains" for young people and the creation, "on a European scale, of a free and free social network".
Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Zemmour regularly denounce the "censorship" against them by internet groups.
Marine Le Pen, president of the National Rally (RN), at the RN summer university, September 12, 2021 in Fréjus Valery HACHE AFP
Shouting at the "deafening silence of so-called feminists", a frequent target of the CNews polemicist, she promised to free women from the "obscurantist yoke" of the "Taliban from within", proposing that the perpetrators of sexist outrages be registered with criminals and sex offenders.
Ms. Le Pen, given in the second round of the presidential election, had told the press that France was not expecting "a Trump" and that Eric Zemmour, credited with 7 to 8% of the vote, would "not go as far as at the end of the campaign.
But if the polemicist embarks on the race for the Elysee Palace, Marine Le Pen, "who is in a second round strategy against Macron, will have to position himself on the first round", told AFP the political scientist Jean- Yves Camus.
Eric Zemmour, April 22, 2021 in Paris JOEL SAGET AFP / Archives
Mr. Zemmour, who will begin promoting his campaign-flavored book next week, told him that he "wanted" to be a candidate and believed that Ms. Le Pen "will never win" in 2022, believing that she will not be a candidate. 'has "not progressed" since his failed debate against Emmanuel Macron in 2017.
- "Innocent" -
For Christophe Castaner, leader of Macronist deputies, Marine Le Pen runs "behind Zemmour" when she evokes a "civilizational shock", "kind of civil war".
The rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon deplores him that the polemicist, more radical than Marine Le Pen, makes "Mrs. Le Pen pass for almost an innocent".
For the candidate for the possible primary of the right Valérie Pécresse, he is more "a ball at the foot of Marine Le Pen" than his camp, to which the polemicist would yet squeak voices.
Max, who came from Cannes, has been voting RN for 40 years and thinks that Marine Le Pen can win this time because she is "much more religious" than Emmanuel Macron "who sold his soul to the devil" and because Eric Zemmour "it is the right which places him there to take away his voices".
For Irene, 65, who demonstrated against the health pass, Eric Zemmour "it will not change anything" because "it will not exceed 10%".
Jordan Bardella, who takes over the interim presidency of the far-right party, invited activists, still stunned by the failure of the regional, to "roll up their sleeves" for the presidential election.
He will begin a tour of the federations next week.
He particularly attacked President Macron, "a man from nowhere who leads nowhere", and also attacked the socialist Anne Hidalgo, who announced his presidential candidacy on Sunday and will be at 8:00 p.m. in France 2 at the same time as Marine Le Pen on TF1.
© 2021 AFP