The far-right politician competes directly with his aunt Marine Le Pen to win that part of the electorate in the race to the Elysee
The former French deputy Marion Maréchal, niece of the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, officially announced this Sunday that she supports the far-right Éric Zemmour, her aunt’s opponent in the race to the Elysee Palace.
“I have made the decision to support Éric Zemmour for the presidential elections,” confirmed Márechal, 32, in an interview published by the magazine ‘Valeurs Actuelles’. “I join the candidate that I consider best placed to bring the ideas that I have always defended to victory,” added the former deputy of the National Front (today National Regroupment).
My dear Marion, I always had the intuition that one day we would fight together for France. I didn’t know when or how, but I knew it would happen,” said Zemmour, who welcomed Le Pen’s niece with open arms and kisses at the rally he held in Toulon, southeastern France. “We are going to win”, shouted his followers.
Maréchal, considered the muse of the most traditionalist extreme right, acknowledged that making the decision to support Zemmour “was difficult” because it was not an obvious choice given his political past, his family ties and his current professional responsibilities.
Marion Máréchal is the daughter of Yann Le Pen, sister of Marine Le Pen. She abandoned political life five years ago after her aunt’s defeat in the 2017 presidential election. She founded the Institute of Social, Economic and Political Sciences (ISSEP) in Lyon in 2018, a far-right think tank. It was also then that she stopped using the double surname (Maréchal-Le Pen) to be called simply Marion Maréchal.
no surprise
The far-right former MP’s decision to back Zemmour came as no surprise. She accompanied him to Budapest in September, where they were received privately by Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary. However, Marine Le Pen also visited Orban in October and he laid out the red carpet for her.
Maréchal is convinced that Zemmour is “the candidate best placed to qualify and create surprise in the second round.” “It is not a matter of polls, but of political perspective,” said the former far-right deputy. It is not yet clear whether the support of Márechal, the hope of the Catholic far right, for Zemmour will weigh in the polls.
In January, Marine Le Pen had considered “brutal and violent” that her niece would support Zemmour, as was rumored at the time. This weekend he tried, however, on Saturday to play down the issue.
“Poor Marion has become something of a lifeline for a campaign that is sinking. It’s a shame because she deserves more than this, “said the candidate for National Regrouping, the second voting intention behind outgoing president Emmanuel Macron.
macron favorite
If this Sunday the first round of the presidential elections were held in France, Macron would obtain 30.5% of the votes; followed at a distance by Le Pen (14.5%) and Zemmour (13%), according to a recent survey by the Ipsos institute. According to electoral regulations, only the two most voted candidates go to the second round.
The Le Pen family, present in French politics for decades, fascinates the French. Thus, a large part of the public carefully follows the chapters of this political-family soap opera full of family disagreements, reconciliations and political betrayals.
Marine Le Pen, in her efforts to “demonize” the party and kick out the most radical members to try to grow and attract voters, expelled her father from the party in 2018. The National Front was renamed National Regrouping. This name change did not please the patriarch, who described it as “the most severe blow” that the National Front has received since its foundation.
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