"The objective is clear, to send the maximum number of patriotic deputies to the Assembly", he announced, without however giving a quantified objective, on the occasion of the presentation of the deputies of the far-right party invested in the Var department, where Marine Le Pen came out on top with 55% of the votes in the second round of the presidential election.

"We start from six deputies, we have a significant margin of progress", he underlined from the terrace of a municipal swimming pool in Fréjus, city of mayor RN David Rachline, recalling that in the second round of the presidential election, the National Rally exceeded 40% of the vote in 339 constituencies and came first in 30 departments.

If the party will be present in the first round in the 577 constituencies, with "candidates from the RN or supported by the RN", Jordan Bardella assured that alliances would be possible afterwards: "In the second round, we are perfectly ready to bring our support for the patriotic candidate who would defend our convictions as much as possible", including Reconquest! candidates, "if there could be any".

THE president of the National Rally (RN), Jordan Bardella, speaks to the press, on April 28, 2022, in Fréjus (Var) Valery HACHE AFP

“We aim and wish for the constitution of a powerful group in the National Assembly”, he continued, announcing the holding of a large meeting “of mobilization” on June 4, in a place still undefined.

For the president of the National Rally, the question will be to know "if France at the end of this election will still be a democracy or not".

"If Emmanuel Macron were to have 450 deputies in the National Assembly, then I believe it would be cataclysmic for democracy," he said, even referring to a potential resumption of the yellow vests movement.

If Emmanuel Macron were to have "full powers", "we would move away from the idea of ​​a mature democracy, we should not then come and criticize regimes where democracy is perhaps less developed, I think to Russia for example", added Mr. Bardella, qualifying Emmanuel Macron as an "authoritarian leader" who "confiscated a large part of the freedoms of the French people".

© 2022 AFP