This is called sending the heavy artillery to the front.

For its campaign launch at the Grand Palais in Lille, Saturday March 9, just three months before the European elections, the Renaissance party was keen to show that the entire presidential majority was united behind its head of the list, Valérie Hayer, unknown to the General public.

After an entrance in the company of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and a tour of the room which lasted around fifteen minutes, time to take a few dozen selfies with the activists present, Valérie Hayer took care to kiss her colleagues MEPs, the main government figures, the head of the MoDem François Bayrou and the former Prime Ministers Élisabeth Borne and Édouard Philippe, all seated in the front row in front of the stage.

Ultimately, only Emmanuel Macron was missing from this shock casting.

Read alsoEuropean elections: the challenges of a high-risk election

The presidential party knows that it is coming a long way and wanted to pull out all the stops for this first campaign meeting.

The National Rally (RN) list carried by Jordan Bardella has been at the top of the polls for weeks, ten points ahead of Valérie Hayer's list.

In a context of rising populism and Eurosceptic parties throughout Europe, nothing seems to be able to prevent him from coming to the top of the ballot on the evening of June 9.

For Renaissance, it is therefore time to launch an unexpected “comeback” by making these European elections a duel between the RN and the presidential majority.

“Against all those who say that it is a foregone conclusion, fight! With the entire government, we will be at your side,” the Prime Minister told the crowd, who gave him a standing ovation, after passing the essential of his speech to crush the elected representatives of the National Rally, described as "rentiers of fear".

“They have always said no to Europe. The only difference now is that they hide it a little and that the no has turned into a niet,” he castigated, after accusing the RN proximity to Vladimir Putin.

“The reality of the Le Pen clan is a vast deception”

“The reality of the Le Pen clan is a vast deception,” he continued, evoking “a litany of betrayals against the interests of the French”, while pointing out the changes of footing of the RN on the euro, the death penalty, abortion, the common agricultural policy or even accession to the European Union.

"Do we want to continue building Europe? Does France want to leave Europe? Our answer is clear, it is frank, it is clear: yes, we believe in Europe, yes we want to stay in Europe, yes we are Europeans", said Gabriel Attal after explaining that Jordan Bardella's project was according to him a "Frexit" which does not say its name.

A little earlier, it was the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who had intoned the same refrain, accusing Marine Le Pen of wanting to "ruin the fishermen with a Frexit" and claiming to know "the results of the RN program thanks to to Brexit.

Also read: Bardella, Glucksmann, Hayer: who are the main French leaders in the European elections?

With the target clearly identified, Valérie Hayer could in turn enter the battlefield and send her own ammunition.

“There will be on one side those who believe in Europe and on the other those who do not believe in it,” she said after a few minutes of speech, during which she mentioned her “commitment” as a woman “who grew up on his parents' farm and who knows what Europe brings to our farmers."

Without panache, the head of the Renaissance list, which suffers from a huge lack of notoriety, tried, the day after the official inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution, to follow in the footsteps of Simone Veil.

“We are in Munich in 1938. It is one minute to midnight”

The former minister, who legalized abortion in France, and former president of the European Parliament was mentioned numerous times on Saturday afternoon.

Just like the references comparing what is currently happening in Ukraine with what happened in Europe on the eve of the Second World War.

“Yesterday Daladier and Chamberlain, today Le Pen and Orban. We are in Munich in 1938. It is one minute to midnight,” said Valérie Hayer, while Édouard Philippe quoted Winston Churchill to criticize those who feed “a crocodile " hoping to be the last "to be eaten".

A speech to which the activists who came to attend this first major campaign meeting fully adhere.

Many of them cited the Ukrainian issue as the reason for their commitment to the Renaissance-MoDem-Horizons list.

“With the war in Ukraine, we are at a decisive moment in European history,” underlined David, 52, who came specially from Nantes to support Valérie Hayer, “a person of great quality” according to him.

“President Macron is right to support Ukraine. It is a very important issue,” added Mireille (first name has been changed), 85 years old, who came from Hauts-de-Seine.

“It is therefore essential to finish in front of the RN on June 9 because otherwise the far right will destroy Europe.”

Europeans 2024: the main French list leaders © Graphic Studio, FMM

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