By Sudouest.fr with AFP
Marine Le Pen meets her European allies in Madrid on Saturday to establish her credibility while the fire of the family saga smolders in Paris with her niece Marion Maréchal, tempted to join Éric Zemmour.
The National Rally candidate judged Friday “violent” that her niece is thinking of joining her rival, insisting on “the personal aspect” of their relationship and ensuring that she is “better placed” to win in April than the former columnist.
Marine Le Pen (around 17%) is given in the polls in second place in the first round, neck and neck with the LR candidate Valérie Pécresse, ahead of Eric Zemmour (13%).
One-on-one with Orban
While rumors evoked a rallying of Marion Maréchal at the beginning of February, the latter first denied, before confiding in the Parisian then in the Figaro to say that she wants to “redo politics” and that she “leans” for Eric Zemmour, without rallying him at this stage.
Marine Le Pen wanted to “get her niece out of the woods”, even soap the board of her official rallying, believes a source close to Eric Zemmour’s campaign. At the risk of rekindling family wounds, which Marion Maréchal wants to avoid at all costs.
International stature
Far from this turmoil, Marine Le Pen meets her far-right and sovereigntist allies in Madrid on Saturday, including the Hungarian Prime Ministers Viktor Orban and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, almost two months after a similar meeting in Warsaw.
Enough to consolidate her international stature and her credibility on her ability to gain power, while she obtained for her presidential campaign a loan of 10.6 million euros “from a European bank”, as we found out on Friday.
She stands out from Eric Zemmour who, in his pre-campaign, experienced hectic international trips to London and Geneva, after having outstripped his competitor in the fall with Viktor Orban in Budapest.
The candidate took care to bring to Madrid the MEP Nicolas Bay, first vice-president of the ID group, who “has all his place”, she underlined on Wednesday, when he is cited among those tempted to join Eric Zemmour. On her arrival, Marine Le Pen greeted her “friends” from the Spanish Vox party, host of the meeting in Madrid, on Friday, which had established a partnership with Marion Maréchal’s school of political science.
Primacy of national law
On the European level, it is for Marine Le Pen, who has given up on leaving the euro, to demonstrate that sovereigntists can “change Europe from within”, even if nothing is expected of this summit, which will not attend the leader of the Italian League Matteo Salvini.
The officials present in Warsaw had discussed the possibility of common votes in the European Parliament or even of forming a common group, but without succeeding so far in concluding a formal alliance. The French candidate has already expressed her support for Poland and Hungary in their showdown with the European Commission, advocating like them the primacy of national law over European law.
But differences remain, as on the Ukrainian crisis. Marine Le Pen invokes NATO commitments so that she “cannot have forces on the Russian border”. While the countries of the East are worried about Russian military reinforcement.
Ultimately, these formations would like to form a common group in the European Parliament, where they are divided between the ID group (French RN, Italian League, German AfD) and the CRE group of European Conservatives and Reformists (Polish Law and Justice, Spanish Vox, Fratelli d’Italia). Viktor Orban’s Fidesz, who divorced the European People’s Party group, is looking for other partners.