Jordan Bardella denounced on Sunday “the erasure of France” in Europe and targeted the “great eraser” Emmanuel Macron, during a meeting in Marseille in front of 5,000 people, launching his European election campaign which intends to capitalize on good momentum pollster.
“The great eraser is called Emmanuel Macron”
On the outskirts of the Vélodrome stadium, the head of the National Rally list received a standing ovation to the sound of “Macron resignation”, “Marine president” and “We are at home”, with the rare honor of speaking last, a privilege until then reserved for the triple unsuccessful candidate for the Élysée. “What our leaders and the European Union have caused, hand in hand, is the great erasure of France which results in the decline of France at home, on its own soil, but also in Europe and in the world, he said.
“And the great eraser is called Emmanuel Macron”. The 28-year-old candidate assured that June 9 should be “day 1 of the alternation”, faithful to the party’s strategy which intends to make the European elections a real mid-term election. “There is no other option than victory,” he insisted.
Marine Le Pen opened the meeting after a long stroll alongside Jordan Bardella in the middle of the public, under deafening music and a swarm of blue-white-red flags. She notably denounced the “cynicism” and the “warlike postures” of a President Macron “in a state of siege”, in the face of whom the RN will propose a “thoughtful and resolute, national and popular transition”.
“Like thirty years ago, we are still floundering in the ‘responsible, but not guilty’ with a government that continues to discredit itself,” she lambasted, before ironically: “It’s the fault of the crisis, the RN, the war, the RN, social networks, the RN, the Chinese, the RN, the Martians, the RN… These unworthy evasions discredit public speech and action. Marine Le Pen also confirmed her presence on the list of her foal, in last place, “symbolically”.
“The Green Deal on one side, the Migration Pact on the other”
The Marseille meeting, “the most important”, inaugurated a series of around ten public meetings scheduled over the next three months, including one in Paris on May 1. This first meeting – billed for 400,000 euros out of a total campaign budget of 4.32 million – allowed the RN to test a new slogan: “France returns”, subtitled “Europe revives”, wink to Ronald Reagan’s phrase “America is back”.
It was already a reference to the 1980s that the far-right party had used until then, “Vivement le 9 Juin”, a pastiche of a slogan of Jacques Chirac’s RPR. Basically, the Marseille rally was an opportunity to unveil the main axes of the campaign, agricultural crisis and immigration in the lead. “The Green Pact on one side, the Migration Pact on the other: here are the two main pillars of this decisive electoral battle,” launched Jordan Bardella, once again considering the elections as a “referendum against migratory overwhelm”.
To Macronie who accuses him of wanting to leave the European Union in disguise, the MEP replied that we “do not leave the gaming table when we are about to win the game”, citing several countries where the RN’s allies are progressing. One of his competitors, Raphaël Glucksmann, who is on the socialist list, described the Lepenists on France 3 as “junk patriots (…) in the service of Vladimir Putin”. To the supporters of Reconquête!, tempted by Marion Maréchal’s list, or to those of LR, Jordan Bardella indirectly asked them to “unite and come together” rather than “disperse their vote”.
2027 objective for Marine Le Pen
A parallel counter-demonstration brought together 600 people in Marseille, who came to “mark their opposition” to the RN. Ultra-favorite in the polls (28 to 30% voting intentions) with around ten points more than the Renaissance-MoDem-Horizons list, Jordan Bardella has a double ambition: to come first and do at least as well as to the last Europeans, 23.34%. Underlying objective: to make June 9 the stepping stone to Marine Le Pen’s fourth candidacy for the Élysée in 2027.
The main unknown of the campaign, for the RN, will be the rise, or not, of the presidential camp, stuck for several weeks below the 20% voting intention mark. The macronie and its candidate Valérie Hayer intend to respond to Jordan Bardella’s meeting next Saturday, in Lille. With, to support it, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and his entire government.