"I will not take over the head of the RN. I will focus on the presidency of this very large group", declared the far-right presidential finalist, who said she was "surprised" by the number of RN deputies - 89, a record – elected Sunday evening in the second round of the legislative elections, when she hoped for around 60.

"We hoped to have a group and in our greatest hopes we hoped to have 60 deputies. It is true that we were pleasantly surprised by the mobilization of our compatriots and by this wish that immigration, that insecurity, that the fight against Islamism do not disappear from the National Assembly", affirmed the deputy of Pas-de-Calais.

Asked about a possible presidential candidacy in 2027, she replied "we'll see", arguing that it was "not the priority of the French".

The leader of the RN clarified that she would "call" her 89 deputies "for excellence".

"We must be better, more hard-working, more efficient, more efficient," she said when the six RN deputies who had sat so far were not very regular in the Assembly.

She specified that her group would not be "not an exclusively RN group" and that it would be "intended to welcome" deputies elected "thanks to the voters of the RN", and who had supported her in the second round of the presidential election, in quoting Emmanuelle Ménard in Hérault or Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, in Essonne.

She repeated that her group was going to "position itself as soon as (its) arrival at the National Assembly on fundamental subjects" such as "the fight against Islamism" and the citizens' initiative referendum (RIC), warning that she intended "to implement the blocking of all the reforms (...) harmful, in the forefront of which the retirement at 65 years".

While several party executives, such as her press secretary Caroline Parmentier or her deputy presidential campaign manager Jean-Philippe Tanguy, were elected on Sunday evening, she assured that Jordan Bardella, acting president of the RN until September , "will have no difficulty in replacing those who today have been elected and who can maintain responsibilities in the movement".

"I did it myself for years," she said.

She finally mentioned the meeting "within a few weeks" of a party congress, which will elect his successor at the head of the RN.

The latter will therefore no longer bear the name Le Pen for the first time in its history.

© 2022 AFP