In the red studio of France Inter, this Monday, July 1st, the atmosphere is heavy. The day before, the National Rally, with 33% of the votes, has just come out on top in the first round of the legislative elections, ahead of the New Popular Front, despite a lightning mobilization of the troops. Dressed in her traditional green jacket, Marine Tondelier enters, settles in. And reacts directly to the words of Bruno Le Maire, seated a few seconds earlier in her place. “I am devastated and extremely angry”she confides, her voice broken with emotion. “I am very moved because I have been living in a city run by the National Rally for ten years, underlines the one who grew up in Hénin-Beaumont, where Marine Le Pen won in the first round. And what Bruno Le Maire has just done is the behaviour of a coward, and of a privileged person.”.
Just before the environmentalist spoke, on the verge of tears, the current Minister of the Economy chose to trash La France Insoumise (and thus weaken the New Popular Front) rather than clearly attack the National Rally, on the verge of power. He defended Edouard Philippe’s voting line for the second round, proclaimed the day before: against the RN, a socialist, communist or environmentalist candidate yes, an insoumis no. “It’s out of touch, it’s lunar, it’s not up to the story,” said Marine Tondelier. “Does the National Rally have the possibility of having an absolute majority in the National Assembly? The answer is yes. Does France Insoumise have the capacity to have an absolute majority in the National Assembly? The answer is no,” she recalled. “So they have the wrong problem,” she gets annoyed.
“It’s too late”
“They chose dishonor today, they will have dishonor and defeat, because Macronism is over,” she considers, while Bruno Le Maire had dared to propose to Marine Tondelier, before leaving the studio, to “work together”. The leader of the Ecologists tolls the death knell: “It’s too late”. “Fortunately, left-wing and green voters are less sectarian and less cowardly than that.”she added, multiplying the tackles. “Do you think that the 9 million poor people in this country, the people who have experienced and taken the full brunt of their policies, it didn’t take courage from them to go and vote for them in 2022?”
Marine Tondelier has on the other hand “thanked Gabriel Attal, who was lighter than the average of his camp and I think that’s a form of courage, whatever I think of his politics.”. It was she who, last week, wrote a letter to the various Macronist leaders to ask them to clarify their position on the withdrawal of their candidates in the event of a three-way race. The presidential camp is still divided on the course of action to take for the second round of the legislative elections, with some of its representatives clearly refusing any withdrawal against the far right in favor of La France Insoumise.
This environmentalist figure has gradually established herself during this lightning election campaign. In accordance with what the New Popular Front had announced, she is the one who could face Jordan Bardella during a debate between the two rounds of the legislative elections, after Manuel Bompard and Olivier Faure. “It’s my turn to represent our coalition in the 3rd debate. Am I to understand that you don’t dare to debate with me?” she addresses the far-right leader X, who wants a duel with Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
