By France has had the opportunity to change the course of the country in the legislative elections held on June 30 (first round) and July 7 (second round) of 2024. However, the Rassemblement National (RN from now on) could not win an absolute majority.
Before the snap elections, there was “trouble” in another right-wing party, the Reconquete! The national leadership led by Eric Zemmour wanted to run alone in the elections, while Marion Maréchal explicitly called to ally with the RN. Eventually, those who thought like Marion were expelled from the party (the newly elected MEPs of the party, Guillaume Peltier and Laurence Trochu, and Nicolas Bay). They decided to join the ECR.
We have thus seen voters of the center-right or of Mr. Macron contribute to electing far-left deputies, who wave Palestinian flags and vice versa.
This comedy cannot last, especially since a survey shows that 62 percent of center and center-right voters already regret their vote.
The lesson to be learned is also that the RN and the true right must learn to build solid, effective coalitions, where everyone has their place and speaks to different electorates to form a powerful whole. Not being able to do that always allows the left to survive despite the country being more rightist than leftist. This is how the right and the RN can hope to win in 2027.
Marion Marechal
The Reconquete! Betrayed its Promise
You and three deputies were expelled from Reconquete! for supporting the union of the right-wing in France. Do you think they were unfair to you?
Of course, it’s unfair. But above all, it’s a sad waste of time.
We all got involved in Reconquête! because it was, among other things, the only party that advocated the unity of all the right-wing parties, a fight that has always been mine.
When it was necessary to unite in the legislative elections, they refused it, preferring their party interests, which is irresponsible. They betrayed their initial promise. We will make sure to continue to keep it alive. We are moving forward with all our elected officials in the National Assembly, the Senate, or the European Parliament to contribute to the victory of the coalition of the right in 2027 and to carry the voice of identity, liberal and conservative, in the national camp. It’s an exciting project that goes far beyond this injustice.
Why did you decide to join the ECR?
We decided to join the ECR group because we share the same civilizational vision of Europe.
Like them, we are liberal in economics and conservative in our worldview. We refuse the Islamization of our continent and are attached to our Christian roots. We are fighting the woke delusion and gender theory propaganda. Finally, we are committed to the defense and preservation of our cultures, our heritage and our sovereignties. This integration was the most ideologically coherent for us. The second point is tactical. ECR brings together several parties which have been or are in government because they had the intelligence to appear in a coalition, a union of the right-wing parties. The emblematic case is obviously that of your country and the coalition led by Giorgia Meloni. Through these examples, we want to convince of the necessity of this union in France also to prevail.
New France?
Today, a third of births in France are of non-European origin, and we are breaking all records for legal and illegal entries.
Within a few decades, the historic French people could become a minority on its own soil, and Islam could become the majority in France. We can clearly see that the United Kingdom and Belgium have already moved into another civilizational era. However, several European countries, which experienced mass immigration later and reacted earlier than us, have proven that with political will and appropriate measures, it is possible to obtain significant results. I am thinking in particular of Sweden, Denmark and Italy, which managed to reduce illegal entries into its territory by 64 percent from one year to the next.
It is not yet too late, but today, all those on the right who slow down the victory of the national camp by refusing the necessary alliances bear a serious historical responsibility. It is not only our prosperity that is at stake, but our survival as a people and a civilization.
Back to current affairs, what is your assessment of Michel Barnier’s appointment as Prime Minister of France?
Michel Barnier was not appointed because he aroused enthusiasm, even less on a program. He was appointed because he was one of those who aroused the least opposition among the profiles considered in front of an assembly lacking a majority. This offer appeared to him as an unexpected opportunity to return to the political game from which he had completely withdrawn.
Michel Barnier is fundamentally a man of the center.
His first reflex was to seek to appoint center-left and center-right ministers to reconstitute Emmanuel Macron’s centrist bloc, which was set in a minority in the last legislative elections. Only the numerous refusals he received will perhaps cause some surprises in the nominations.
Emmanuel Macron appointed Michel Barnier as the new Prime Minister of France. (Source: XNews_France Twitter account)
Michel Barnier’s entire career shows that he has never been a man of audacity, rupture and lucidity. And I don’t expect him to become at 73 what he never was. Should we recall that in his functions within the EU, he went so far as to declare: “I am committed not to defend the national interest of France.” There is, therefore, little to expect politically. Even if it must be admitted that his posture as an experienced old sage has something relaxing after the era of arrogant youth and frenetic communication of Macron’s Attal government.
The only thing that we can hope for from this government, and on which it could find legitimacy, would be that it responds to the serious democratic and institutional crisis that France is going through by modifying the voting methods for better representativeness. Imagine that with our system the right is more numerous in terms of votes, but the left has nevertheless obtained more elected officials…
Thierry Breton has resigned, and now Macron has proposed Stéphane Séjourné. How do you consider Breton’s record as a Commissioner, and do you think anything will change with Séjourné?
We are very concerned about this resignation and replacement. Firstly, because for the first time, France refused a candidate and gave in.
There have been disagreements in the past between the Commission and a French Commissioner. But France has always been respected. This is a terrible indicator of France’s loss of influence in Europe.
Everything suggests that after his electoral defeat, Emmanuel Macron prefers to relocate his friends, like Stéphane Séjourné, rather than to have our country respected. Stéphane Séjourné is a 32-year-old apparatchik, very close to Macron, without much experience and without a notable track record. Mocking people say that he speaks his mother tongue, French, less well than Thierry Breton English.
Although I do not share all of Thierry Breton’s struggles, notably his last missive to Elon Musk, he at least had the merit of putting the industrial subject back at the heart of the European debate.
The EU Needs to Review its Migration Policy
Still in the European framework, after the new restrictive policies against illegal immigration in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. Do you think that the European Union can change on this issue, or is it something purely electoral?
A reform of the EU will first require a political shift by the States and, therefore, by the European Council.
The fact that important European states, such as Germany, are realizing the need to guard their borders is very encouraging news.
The European Parliament, despite the strengthening of the right, unfortunately did not achieve a new majority. The center-right still remains allied to the left, and both have thus enabled the reappointment of Ursula Von der Leyen. Nevertheless, pressure from the right forced it to put the famous “Green Deal” back on the table, to review its anti-nuclear position and to agree to finance migration agreements with countries of departure. We will be careful to maintain this pressure to thwart the plans of the left.
Finally, on the international scene, how do you see the US elections?
I think that the election of Donald Trump would be very good news for Europe, particularly if he implements his desire for less involvement in NATO. This would force Europeans to take charge and invest in independent security and defense. Armies are the arms of state diplomacy. There can be no independent diplomacy without an independent army.
Faced with the excesses of the American left on wokism, immigration, and anti-white racialism, we can only feel closer to Trump, despite the differences that may exist between us, and which are also due to economic interests and sometimes divergent geopolitics of our countries.
We all can see that, in the United States, lying is a state religion. For years, there has been total media and political silence on the serious senility of Joe Biden. The entire left preferred to let the world’s leading power be chaired by an unfit man. This says a lot about the dangerousness of this left.
