Marion Maréchal, the head of the national-conservative Reconquête party’s list for the European elections, has revealed who will accompany her in the campaign.
Maréchal will be seconded by Guillaume Peltier and Nicolas Bay—a former member of the Les Républicains (LR) and a former member of the Rassemblement National (RN), respectively—who have both rallied behind Éric Zemmour for the 2022 presidential election. Peltier will take second place on the list, and Bay fourth. The women expected to take 3rd and 5th place on the list are not yet known, but among the names being mentioned are Laurence Trochu, president of the Conservative Movement, and Sarah Knafo, Zemmour’s companion.
A division of roles is emerging between the two men. Guillaume Peltier is specifically responsible for attracting voters from the LR party, which he recently left, while Nicolas Bay intends to make Reconquête benefit from the links already forged at the European Parliament level since his election as an MEP for the RN in 2014 and again in 2019.
During one of his first media appearances as part of the campaign, Peltier caused controversy by highlighting Maréchal’s profile as a mother—the fact of having children being, according to him, a guarantee of effectiveness and anchoring in reality. “I’m rather embarrassed to see this new fashion among our politicians not to have children,” he said on CNews. This argument enabled him to take direct aim at Maréchal’s main opponent, Jordan Bardella, 28, who is in a relationship but still childless. Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal were also the targets of this accusation, which did not spare François-Xavier Bellamy, the head of the list for Les Républicains, who is 38 and still single. With this statement, the vice-president of Reconquête is making parenthood a militant act, like Giorgia Meloni in Italy, who regularly highlighted the fact that she was a woman and above all a mother in her campaign: “Today, having children is a political message,” Peltier insisted.
In the meantime, Marion Maréchal took up the cause of the German Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, which has been caught up in a storm in Germany over remarks in favour of remigration allegedly made during an internal meeting. In doing so, Marion Maréchal distinguished herself from the Rassemblement National and Marine Le Pen, who had been quick to react and distance herself from the AfD’s proposals as reported in the press. Maréchal defended the term ‘remigration,’ which has long been advocated by her party, Reconquête. Unlike Marine Le Pen, who clearly based her reaction on comments reported in the German press, Marion Maréchal, interviewed on France Inter, explained that she had gone “to listen to what the head of the AfD list for the European elections was saying.” She added:
“He is proposing the remigration of criminals, foreigners, the long-term unemployed and those on the S list for radicalisation. If that’s what he’s proposing, I agree with it, because it was the remigration project put forward by Éric Zemmour during the presidential campaign.”
According to the Journal du Dimanche, the integration of the Reconquête party into the ECR group, which is currently under negotiation, should be made official in the next few days—provided that the party passes the 5% threshold that would enable it to obtain MEPs.
