After Marine Le Pen’s defeat in the second round of the presidential election, Gaëtan Dussausaye, member of the national council of the National Rally (RN) and former national director of the National Youth Front, discusses the party’s ambitions for the legislative elections.
How to analyze this result obtained by Marine Le Pen (41.2%)?
This is a historically high score for our political formation, we had never reached such a level. We would increase our score by three million votes compared to 2017, with almost more than 14 million voters. This means that there is a good part of voters who did not choose Marine Le Pen in the first round and who voted for her in the second (she had obtained 8.1 million votes, editor’s note). Our project is starting to convince more and more people, it’s a very good start and it should materialize for the legislative elections.
With this result, can the RN organize a block of rights around it?
Even before this second round, it was the first round that decided him. The fact that the French place Marine Le Pen as the first possible alternative to Emmanuel Macron disqualifies and discredits the other candidates. All the more so when they, and I am thinking in particular of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, implicitly call for a vote for Emmanuel Macron. Because when you say “not a voice to Marine Le Pen”, that leaves few alternatives to its voters.
I think the French will not forget that Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a so-called social candidate, called for voting for retirement at 65 and forced labor for RSA beneficiaries (elements of Emmanuel Macron’s program, editor’s note). It is therefore not a union of the right that must be created around us, but a union of the French, period. If all those who voted for us on Sunday do the same in the legislative elections, that will allow us to provide strong opposition to Emmanuel Macron.
Forcing Emmanuel Macron to compromise
There is no question for the moment of considering alliances?
Currently not. There will certainly be discussions that will take place. I think that we can come to an agreement with personalities, executives, who, through their background and the outfit they had during this election, mean that we can work with them and that we can envisage the constitution of a group with them. But if we are talking about device logic, I am not sure, and the abstention shows it, that this is what the French are waiting for. It is rather small shenanigans that disgust them with political life.
Do you already have a goal for the legislative elections?
For the moment, it is still a little early. We want to present candidates everywhere, Marine Le Pen has announced that she will be with them during the campaign. The goal is to have as many representatives as possible in the Assembly, already to form a group (at least 15 deputies, editor’s note) and because that leaves a lot more room for maneuver and means of action to defend France and the French. If we manage to elect as many as possible, this may prevent Emmanuel Macron from obtaining a majority and force him to compromise for the constitution of a government.