The announcement of a press conference by the Prime Minister had been the occasion for a mockery of Marine Le Pen, according to her "a real sketch", after scrambles and failures since the start of the school year in January, particularly at school where the sequence of health protocols as difficult to understand as they are applicable had weakened the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer.

The far-right leader was not convinced by the announcements, which she described as "absurdistan".

After Emmanuel Macron's speech to the European Parliament, the announcement of the easing of restrictions must now leave him free to declare himself a candidate for re-election: several of his relatives predict a campaign launch which must take place "in the next three weeks."

Ms. Le Pen for her part recorded two defections in her troops, who left to join the campaign of Eric Zemmour: first the MEP Jérôme Rivière, then the identity activist Damien Lefevre, better known under the pseudonym Damien Rieu.

Marine Le Pen, president of the National Rally (RN) and presidential candidate, on January 18, 2022 in Paris STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

"There will be zero political impact because Jérôme Rivière had zero political impact in the RN", predicted the finalist of the 2017 presidential election, evoking a "sourness" of the elected official who hoped, according to her, "positions within the RN that I considered he could not obtain".

Still, Mr. Rivière, who on Wednesday evening became vice-president and spokesperson for Mr. Zemmour's party, Reconquest!, said he was convinced on RMC that Mrs. Le Pen is not able to "win" the presidential election.

Formerly deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes under the UMP banner, he was spokesperson for the presidential campaign of Marine Le Pen for the foreign press.

As for Damien Lefevre / Rieu, figure of the late "Génération identitaire" association dissolved this fall and above all parliamentary attaché to MEP Philippe Olivier, himself brother-in-law and close adviser to Marine Le Pen, "this shows his duplicity" , considered the entourage of the candidate.

Eric Zemmour, who will hold a big meeting on Saturday evening in Cannes, welcomed the arrival of the two ex-RNs, praising the "insolence and courage" of the identity activist.

Eric Zemmour, presidential candidate, during a meeting in Saint-Quentin, January 14, 2022 in Aisne Bertrand GUAY AFP / Archives

These rallies must put an end to the bad patch of the ex-polemicist, down in the polls and whose appeal trial for contesting crimes against humanity - he had argued that Marshal Pétain had "saved" the Jews French - stood, in his absence, before the Paris Court of Appeal on Thursday afternoon.

He had been acquitted at first instance.

- "Collective responsibility" -

Less than three months from the first round, another fratricidal war is running, this time on the left: Anne Hidalgo and Christiane Taubira, in head-on competition, continue to beat the countryside on Thursday to try to make a difference within a more disunited camp than ever.

The mayor of Paris, traveling to the Oise in the morning, and the former Minister of Justice, expected at SciencePo Lille in the afternoon, are both poorly placed in the polls.

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, PS presidential candidate, January 13, 2022 in Paris Thomas COEX AFP / Archives

A figure in Ms. Hidalgo's campaign, Carole Delga, also president of the Occitanie region, admitted Thursday that the PS had "not worked enough" for the presidential election of April 10 and 24.

"We all have a collective responsibility", she admitted on Public Senate, while ensuring that the candidate invested by the PS was the only one on the left to have "the stature, the experience, the moral solidity" to become president.

Like insubordinate France and its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Ms. Delga also attacked "the popular Primary", a "citizen" initiative which intends to appoint a single left-wing candidate for the presidential election at the end of January, and for which the organizers claim to have collected 310,000 registrations.

Problem: among the seven names proposed, only Christiane Taubira agreed to submit to the result, but not Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Yannick Jadot or Anne Hidalgo.

Christiane Taubira, presidential candidate, at a meeting in Lille, January 20, 2022 DENIS CHARLET AFP

"This hope that was born (...) leads to a project that is not serious", regretted Ms. Delga.

In the majority, all eyes were on the teachers' strike.

The mobilization finally proved to be quite relative, enough to push a sigh of relief to the macronie who hopes to get out of a zone of uncertainty to finally prepare to embark on the presidential campaign.

© 2022 AFP