50 days before the presidential election, the three competitors are engaged in a fierce fight on the right and find themselves in a pocket handkerchief in the polls, around 15%, far behind Emmanuel Macron.

The next few days will be decisive in making the difference and gaining the upper hand within the conservative electorate before the campaign becomes electrified with the entry into the running of the president-candidate, on a date still unknown.

Hostilities are particularly marked on the far right between Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour.

Rising in the latest polls, the ex-controversialist continues to shop on the shelves of the National Rally.

The candidate Reconquête!, who does not rule out, in the event of victory, taking as Prime Minister Marion Maréchal, niece of the candidate RN, thus appears on Saturday with his latest recruit, the MEP Nicolas Bay and local of the stage since he is also a regional councilor in Normandy.

A practicing Catholic, more conservative on societal issues and more liberal in economics than Marine Le Pen, this former executive of the RN slammed the door with a bang, accusing the party of its "slightly sectarian excesses".

He also filed a complaint for defamation against the RN who accuses him of having "transmitted strategic and confidential elements" to Éric Zemmour, a "sabotage" which he disputes.

"These are accusations to smear me", he insisted on Saturday on France Inter, adding that "Éric Zemmour is best able to bring together all the patriots from different backgrounds".

Opposite, Marine Le Pen denounced a "slug strategy".

Marine Le Pen, candidate of the far-right National Rally (RN) party for the presidential election, during a press conference in Paris, February 17, 2022 Thomas SAMSON AFP / Archives

He is the fourth RN MEP to join Marine Le Pen's rival after Jérôme Rivière, Gilbert Collard and Maxette Pirbakas.

In this fratricidal war on the far right, the RN also lost its only senator Stéphane Ravier, a party figure in the Bouches-du-Rhône.

Brexit and fishing

Éric Zemmour begins his Normandy day on Saturday with an early meeting with fishermen from Port-en-Bessin (Calvados).

He intends to discuss the impact of Brexit on fishing areas and repeat one of his mantras: his hostility to any construction of wind turbines, which he considers "ugly" and "useless", on land and offshore.

At noon, Éric Zemmour will hold an outdoor meeting, probably in the rain, in Pontorson (Manche), near Mont-Saint-Michel, a "symbolic" place to talk about "French power", indicates his team, which counts on a thousand participants.

The opportunity to also attack Valérie Pécresse once again, hoping to continue to benefit from the setbacks of the LR candidate and her meeting deemed failed at the Zenith on February 13.

Valérie Pécresse and Marine Le Pen, after a complicated week, both went back on the offensive on Friday evening in a meeting, the first in the Alpes-Maritimes, the second in Isère.

The candidate for the presidential election of the right-wing Les Republicains (LR) party, Valérie Pécresse, during a meeting in Le Cannet, in the Alpes-Maritimes, on February 18, 2022 CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU AFP

The LR candidate and the far-right leader first hit Emmanuel Macron, whose record "would look like, if he were a business manager, a bankruptcy filing", according to Ms. Pécresse.

But Éric Zemmour also took it for his rank.

"A presidential election is not a reality TV game. We do not only intend to be the interpreters of French nostalgia but to invent and build the France of tomorrow", insisted Marine Le Pen in Vienna.

No meeting planned this weekend on the left where Jean-Luc Mélenchon continues to lead the dance with 10-11% of the voting intentions.

The tribune of LFI described as "welcome" the unexpected support this week of the former socialist candidate for the 2007 presidential election, Ségolène Royal, according to whom "the useful vote on the left is the Mélenchon vote".

Distanced for the moment, the ecologist Yannick Jadot, who sails around 5% in the polls, did not hesitate to be ironic about this support, affirming that "in politics, (he) preferred the straight line and all schuss", rather than slalom.

© 2022 AFP