Jérôme Rivière, Damien Rieu, Gilbert Collard… Two and a half months before the first round of the presidential election, Eric Zemmour has piled up the rallies from the National Rally. A way to relaunch his campaign, while trying to gain the upper hand over Marine Le Pen and establish himself as the leader of the identity right.
Slightly behind in the polls by Valérie Pécresse and Marine Le Pen (themselves behind Emmanuel Macron), the candidate of the Reconquest party saw three defectors from the RN join him a few days apart: Damien Rieu and the two MEPs Jérôme Rivière and Gilbert Collard.
The latter made a point of specifying that he had “nothing against Marine Le Pen”, but that the dynamic was on the side of Eric Zemmour. A statement taken up by the other two, believing that their former party is unable to mobilize new voters. Jérôme Rivière even felt that his former boss “is not in a position to win the presidential election”.
Happy with these reinforcements, which are as many defections from the RN, Reconquest did not fail to communicate to press on this favorable sequence. “In your opinion, who will be the next political figure to join Eric Zemmour?” Questioned his Twitter account on Friday.
Who do you think will be the next political figure to join Éric Zemmour?#UnionDesDroites2022
— RECONQUEST! (@Reconquete_Z) January 20, 2022
The RN wants to show that he does not doubt
If it will take time to analyze whether these movements have a positive effect for Reconquête and negative for the RN, the communication wanted to be calm on the side of Marine Le Pen and his relatives, considering that these were non-events, concerning people who act for their own interest. “The egos overheat and the betrayals bathe in all the rubicons of bitterness and childish jealousies”, reacted Louis Aliot, RN mayor of Perpignan.
Messages touting the “loyalty” of those remaining in support of Marine Le Pen also appeared on social networks.
We must all stand united last #Navy2022.
No room for hesitation for victory at the #Presidential2022 pic.twitter.com/wGN60Ertr0
— Joint Frederique (@FrederiqueJoint) January 20, 2022
The fact remains that in the Zemmour camp, the emphasis was placed on the breathlessness of the far-right competitor and on a speech which has “softened up”, in particular concerning immigration or insecurity.
“The union of the rights”, ultimate objective for Zemmour
It is also a question of creating a movement on a much larger scale than these three rallies, in order to achieve the ultimate objective of the former polemicist: “the union of the rights”.
The neo-candidate intends to unite from the National Rally to the Republicans, via Philippe de Villiers, with the aim of forming a new political family agreeing on an uninhibited and radical right-wing ideology. He had thus already welcomed the arrival of Guillaume Peltier, former number two of LR (also passed to the FN a few years ago), but has since struggled to attract other personalities from the same side.
If Eric Zemmour does not despair of achieving this before the presidential election, this “union of the rights” seems rather destined to see the light of day, if it really happens, after the ballot. Gilbert Collard did not fail to affirm that “one day Marine Le Pen will do like me and join Eric Zemmour”.
A very optimistic forecast, which forgets that the score achieved during the presidential election by the two candidates will have an enormous influence for the future. In the event of defeat, and even more non-accession to the second round, some already see the president of the RN handing over, leaving an empty place for the far right of the French political landscape. A scenario still far from being written, but that the “zemmourists” already seem to anticipate.
