Ahead of the legislative elections in France, the far right is divided after the Rassemblement National (RN) President, Jordan Bardella, excluded Eric Zemmour’s Reconquête! (R!) from a united front. On Monday, Bardella appealed to all ‘patriotic’ personalities to unite with RN in the next elections, making a particular invitation to Marion Maréchal, the second in command of Reconquête! (R!).
This act tried to bypass Zemmour and struck a direct deal with Le Pen’s ambitious niece, leveraging her popularity to attract as many of Zemmour’s voters as possible.
Maréchal responded positively and visited Rassemblement National’s headquarters to meet Marine Le Pen and Bardella. However, in responding to Bardella’s address, Maréchal acted on her initiative. Zemmour knew nothing!
“Just yesterday, the left gathered in #frontpopulaire showed its desire to regain power from Emmanuel Macron,” he posted on X on June 12.
Zemmour, clearly taken aback by the meeting between Maréchal and Bardella, expressed his surprise.
“For the moment, the details of a gathering have still not been communicated to me. I know that many supporters of Reconquest are surprised by this. I will see Marion later to find out what she is trying to achieve,” the French far-right politician posted.
Yesterday afternoon, Maréchal wrote in a post on X that the RN informed her there wasn’t any more interest in the deal as they don’t want a collaboration with Zemmour.
The President of Reconquête! moved forward, announcing its intention to present candidates all over France. This decision found the opposition of Maréchal and three other leading members of the party: Guillaume Peltier, Nicolas Bay, and Laurence Trochu. The four accused Zemmour of acting against the “union of the right” and spreading division in the patriotic camp.
Consequently, Zemmour decided their expulsion.
In a post on X, Maréchal wrote:
“I take note of my exclusion from Reconquête! by Éric Zemmour because I refuse to present candidates against #UnionNationale. I specify that I am not returning to the RN but to bring to life the necessary union of the rights to beat Emmanuel Macron and save our country”.
After the Les Republicains party crisis, caused by its President Eric Ciotti’s decision to announce the party’s cooperation with Le Pen and Bardella, the far-right and right camps entered the electoral campaign with deep division and introversion.
