Inspired by a conference organised by Jacques Chirac in the 1990s, the Rassemblement National’s (RN) Tuesday event on immigration was intended to signal a continuity between the classic governmental Right of yesteryear and the Rassemblement National of today.
The États Généraux de l’Immigration (States General on Immigration) was organised by Jordan Bardella—current RN president and head of his party’s list for the European elections—and Franck Allisio, RN deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône, the department around Marseille, also representing the ‘Rassemblement pour la République’ (RPR). In 2022, the MP bought back the RPR brand by using the former name of the Right’s main governing party under Jacques Chirac, which had fallen into disuse several years earlier.
By displaying the dual RN-RPR label, the real aim of this ‘study day’ was clear: to show the public that the Rassemblement National, still referred to today as a far-right party, is in fact the direct heir to the Gaullist formation that was born in the 1970s and won the 1995 presidential elections.
In the minds of many French conservatives, the RPR remains the benchmark for seriousness, conviction and electoral success, at a time when the Right was less subject to the injunctions of political correctness. Éric Zemmour also regularly invokes the legacy of the RPR in his political arguments, claiming that Reconquête is its updated continuation.
The March 26th event was conceived as a reprise of the États généraux de l’opposition, organised on March 31st and April 1st 1990 at Villepinte in Seine-Saint-Denis by Chirac and his party. In his introduction to the conference, Bardella clearly claimed this affiliation:
The programme of the RPR in the 1990s, when the RPR was truly right-wing, is today the programme of the Rassemblement National, at least on the issue of security and immigration.
Co-organiser Allisio agreed: “The observation made in Villepinte in 1990 was tough, but fair. The Right has stalled in the meantime, under pressure from the technostructure, Europe and the media. We’re going to go back to the drawing board, but we’re going to apply it.”
Two sequences were on the agenda. The first was a round-table discussion entitled “Migratory submergence: the reality of the facts and figures.” This was followed by a second round table, entitled “Taking back control of our destiny: giving France its own doors and Europe its own borders.”
The symposium was an opportunity for the RN to highlight the arrival of essayist Malika Sorel as number two on the list for the European elections—a new ‘spoil of war’ for the national right-wing party, in addition to that of Fabrice Leggeri, former president of the European Frontex agency, presently number three on the list. Of Algerian origin, Malika Sorel was a member of the high council on integration from 2009 to 2013, a strategic body from which she was able to observe the gaping dysfunctions of French migration policy. She has built up a solid reputation on immigration, integration and education issues. A former supporter of the unsuccessful right-wing candidate in 2017, François Fillon, she explains that she chose the Rassemblement National for the European elections because she believes it is today “the only party that defends the higher interests of France and the French people.”
In a bid to discredit her, the investigative satirical newspaper Le Canard enchaîné revealed that a few weeks ago—when there was still talk of a ministerial reshuffle—Malika Sorel allegedly offered her services to Emmanuel Macron as minister of education. She has not denied this.
The French mainstream press was generally highly critical of the États généraux—an exercise which was deemed pointless. ‘What’s the point of bringing together people of the same opinion to discuss it amongst themselves? Nothing,’ exclaimed the centre-left weekly L’Obs. The very principle of the design to repeat Jacques Chirac’s conference was not considered convincing. In any case, this conference appears to be another building block in the process of normalising the Rassemblement National, whose intentions are very clear here: to replace the classic Right, which failed when it was in power and is now finding it increasingly difficult to convince voters.
Whereas the Chirac connection is important, the choice of name also links this recent meeting to a broader French historical tradition of exceptional assemblies.
