In Bayeux, Marine Le Pen will follow in the footsteps of General de Gaulle on Tuesday, paying tribute to the founder of the Fifth Republic in a speech on institutions.

A desire to place itself in the lineage of the author of the appeal of June 18, 1940 in the run-up to the presidential election, while his party has often fought Gaullism.

Why are so many presidential candidates claiming to be part of the general's legacy? 

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sheds light on history.

On the right, nothing new

With Les Républicains, this heritage is not new and is in fact well founded, since the party is none other than the direct descendant of the UNR, the Gaullist party in power at the start of the Fifth Republic, which became UDR, RPR, then UMP. "It is the tutelary figure of the party, the statue of the commander," explains Alexandre Eyries, HDR teacher-researcher in Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Burgundy. Calling on de Gaulle is thus summoning "the regal, authority, charisma and legitimacy". Impossible to miss this filiation when one does not embody these values ​​oneself, "in particular for Xavier Bertrand who had left this political family", insists the specialist in political communication.

Ditto for Valérie Pécresse.

But the identification with the leader of the Resistance is wider.

"Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to change Republic but remains attached to his resistant side, even Philippe Poutou could say he is for the anti-Nazi de Gaulle by scratching a little" smiles Fabrice d'Almeida, historian specializing in political image and professor at the University of Paris Panthéon-Assas.

De Gaulle is "the last great historical figure, at the head of the favorite historical figures of the French" according to a recent poll.

And his name speaks to everyone.

School and the dark side of de Gaulle

One might expect that over time it will lose its symbolic weight. It's quite the opposite. "In high school, history must share the common values ​​of the Republic", explains Fabrice d'Almeida. During their schooling, the pupils are confronted three times with the Second World War and with the questions of memory, and therefore with de Gaulle. "Since the 1970s, teachers have enjoyed teaching de Gaulle, because it is a positive chapter that spares all susceptibilities", abounds the historian. Including in high schools where there are young people from the former French colonies, since "de Gaulle restored independence to Algeria" and to many African countries. Enough to end at the top of the “tier-list of French historical figures” of streamer Rivenzi during the Zevent.

However, the current memory of General de Gaulle obscures part of reality.

Forgotten, the meetings of 1947 where the security service massacred communist militants.

Swept aside, the criticisms of the 1960s against a presidential power bordering on authoritarian rule and a de Gaulle governing by plebiscite, like a Napoleon III.

"In the United States, he was presented as a dictator", confides Alexandre Eyries, who compares the image of the general in France to a "messianic figure".

Beyond history, even beyond his legend, de Gaulle is in fact invoked “as a poor language of politics.

We do not quote him directly, we say de Gaulle as we would say the flag or Marseillaise, ”points out Fabrice d'Almeida.

The ambiguities of the extreme

A new section of the political class in turn began to summon de Gaulle, in a more unexpected way: the extreme right. First Marine Le Pen, who will lay a wreath at the foot of the Cross of Lorraine before going to deliver a speech in Bayeux. "Eric Zemmour is going to come and siphon votes from him, so she is forced to go to the lands of the Republicans", analyzes Alexandre Eyries. Yet his father and his party have long been fierce enemies of Gaullism.

But certain themes are golden opportunities to cling to the "warlord turned political leader and liberator of France" portrayed by the teacher-researcher. In particular the theme of sovereignty. On the one hand, a general who came to "reestablish national sovereignty" after the Occupation and who took France out of NATO's integrated command to regain independence, on the other a candidate who wants to prioritize the law. French on European law. The collusion made sense. But it is forgotten that de Gaulle respected the European treaties. "This ambiguity on sovereignty is significant, it allows each voter to receive the message as he sees fit" underlines Alexandre Eyries.

The ambiguity is even stronger for Eric Zemmour, who "rehabilitates Pétain in the idea that he was right to sign the armistice in 1940 because nothing was saved and that he saved the French from deportation. , which is false ”, establishes Fabrice d'Almeida.

This does not prevent the polemicist from summoning the rebellious spirit of General de Gaulle, "the providential man" alone able to get France out of defeatism.

At the same time, he returns to the RPR movement, "because the figure of the solo escape no longer works in a world where political figures have not changed so much" after the election of Emmanuel Macron, decrypts Alexandre Eyries.

Height of the ambiguity, Eric Zemmour let hover the hypothesis of an officialization of his candidacy in Colombay-les-deux-Eglises.

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  • Marine Le Pen

  • Eric Zemmour

  • Xavier Bertrand

  • Charles de Gaulle

  • The Republicans (LR)

  • Presidential election 2022