Élisabeth Borne attacks the RN "heir of Pétain", without forgetting LFI

Europe 1 with AFP 07:47, May 28, 2023, modified at 07:48, May 28, 2023

Elisabeth Borne on Sunday attacked the National Rally (RN), "heir to Pétain" whose victory she considers "possible" in 2027, while accusing Jean-Luc Mélenchon and La France insoumise of playing "the game of the far right" and contributing to the rise of violence. "I don't believe at all in the normalization of the National Rally. I think you shouldn't trivialize your ideas, your ideas are always the same. So now the National Rally is putting the forms on it, but I continue to think that it is a dangerous ideology," the prime minister said in an interview with Radio J broadcast on Sunday.

"I have never heard Marine Le Pen denounce what may have been the historical positions of her party"

The RN, heir to Petain? "Yes, also, heir of Pétain, absolutely," replied the Prime Minister. What about Marine Le Pen? "I have never heard Marine Le Pen denounce what may have been the historical positions of her party and I think that a change of name does not change the ideas, the roots," said the Prime Minister about the change of name of the party in 2018, from FN to RN.

Asked about the possibility of a victory for Jean-Marie Le Pen's daughter in the 2027 presidential election, the head of government replied: "I fear that everything is possible. (...) By dint of trivialization, it is a real threat." She recalled her memories of April 21, 2002, the day Jean-Marie Le Pen qualified for the second round of the presidential election and the elimination of the socialist Lionel Jospin, of whom she was then the adviser at Matignon.

There is an "obvious proximity" between the RN and Vladimir Putin

Ms. Borne also considered that there was "an obvious proximity" between the RN and Vladimir Putin. "If (Ms Le Pen) wants to rewrite history, we don't have to fall into this trap. This proximity exists and does not disappear," she said. The former president of the RN defended herself this week from any "Russian tropism" before a parliamentary commission of inquiry.

Asked if Putin's party in France was on the far right or the far left, the RN or La France insoumise, the Prime Minister replied: "There are indeed minority voices at both extremes, which are very ambiguous, which probably do not dare to publicly display their positions but who also do not take the condemnation that can be expected in the face of Russian aggression on Ukraine".

Mélenchon's "share of responsibility"

Is it targeting Mrs Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon? "Absolutely... I think there is the same ambiguity vis-à-vis Vladimir Putin, and the same connivance that continues to exist vis-à-vis him."

Elisabeth Borne, however, puts "no equal sign" between the RN and LFI, while this question agitates the presidential camp. "I say that the most dangerous, that the ideology that is fundamentally dangerous, is that of the extreme right. But I see that the behavior of LFI, which ultimately wants to destabilize our country, which attacks our institutions, also plays into the hands of the far right."

If there are "many factors that explain the rise of violence" in French society, "Jean-Luc Mélenchon has his share of responsibility, when we see (him) screaming in front of police + the Republic is me +, when we hear him actually want to break, to bring down the +bad Republic +, to make outrageous remarks permanently," said Ms. Borne, for whom the LFI deputies "do not play the game of democratic debate in the National Assembly".

"I owe everything to the Republic and my country"

During this interview, Elisabeth Borne also spoke about her father, a Holocaust survivor, and her own journey. "I owe everything to the Republic and my country. I was orphaned at 11, I was a ward of the Nation. Then I joined the Ecole Polytechnique where I was able to continue my studies because I was also paid. And then I started my job in the state," she said. "For me, this is a promise of emancipation, the Republic."