Protesters disrupted a program on Saturday evening that Marine Le Pen was recording at her hotel in Gosier, Guadeloupe.
It is “a totally unacceptable scene”. Emmanuel Macron said he was “shocked” on Sunday and condemned the disturbances suffered by Marine Le Pen in Guadeloupe the day before. The recording of a program by the RN candidate, in a hotel in Guadeloupe, was interrupted by demonstrators presented as nationalists. These facts “shock me and I condemn them in the strongest terms”, reacted the candidate president. “I fight Ms Le Pen’s ideas but with respect,” he added.
Ripped microphone
“Twenty far-left demonstrators jostled us quite violently,” the presidential candidate’s entourage told AFP. His press secretary reported having received “a blow in the back”. They also “ripped off the microphone” worn by the candidate. The set where Marine Le Pen finished recording a duplex program to be broadcast on Sunday on France 3 “was invaded by activists from several nationalist organizations in Guadeloupe”, including the National Alliance Guadeloupe (ANG), reported the Guadeloupe La Première channel, which itself had to cancel a live interview scheduled for 7:30 p.m. local time. “There were no real clashes or violence but rather intimidation vis-à-vis Marine Le Pen”, reported the journalist of the channel on the spot.
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On the images broadcast by the channel, we can see Marine Le Pen’s bodyguard take her against him while she lowers her head to protect herself. She was quickly evacuated from the set on which Guadeloupe La Première was to interview her live. The demonstrators, who chanted “out”, “racist” according to images from BFMTV, left the scene on their own, the hotel management told AFP. Among them was Laurence Maquiaba who explained to AFP that she wanted to “prevent” Marine Le Pen’s message from being “broadcast at high eavesdropping”. “Guadeloupeans, despite the skilfully orchestrated welcome, do not want this person (…) and a party that has not changed at all,” she added.
Jean-Marie Le Pen had never been able to go to Guadeloupe in the countryside
RN deputy Sébastien Chenu questioned on BFMTV the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin who “obviously did not worry about the security of this hotel”.
Arrival of the candidate at Pointe a Pitre airport.
© MOREL.Gilles/SIMAX/SIPA/2203270831
Marine Le Pen had arrived safely in Guadeloupe, where she was coming for the first time when her father had never been able to go there on campaign. She had been welcomed by around forty supporters at Pointe-à-Pitre airport to the rhythms of ka (drum), while in December 1987, nearly 3,000 demonstrators had taken over the runway at Lamentin airport, in Martinique, to protest against the “racism” of the National Front and the arrival of its then president Jean-Marie Le Pen, who had refused to disembark.
Marine Le Pen’s program for Sunday is maintained. In particular, she must visit a market in Sainte-Anne and then meet firefighters in Sainte-Rose.