François Ducamp, the current departmental delegate of the National Rally, is clearly not from the Jean-Marie Le Pen generation. His relationship with the founding father of the movement is distant.
“I joined the movement in 2018he specifies. It has not been called National Front for several years now. I have never met Jean-Marie Le Pen, I am involved in the wake of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella. »
“He used inappropriate words and was condemned”
For François Ducamp, Jean-Marie Le Pen, “it was a different time”. The leader of RN 37 clearly marks his difference with the former frontist leader. “He used inappropriate words and he was condemned for that”he says.
But, despite this distancing, François Ducamp emphasizes « son affection » for the founding father of the movement. “We still owe him what we are todayhe specifies. His Poujadism, with the defense of farmers and artisans, interests me. We must realize that we went from 0.75% of the votes in the 1981 presidential election to Marine Le Pen in the second round with 40% of the votes. When we see the debates on immigration today, we say to ourselves that he was a pioneer. »
He launched into a three-quarter-hour speech without notes
Gilles Godefroy former departmental secretary of the FN
Gilles Godefroy had been departmental secretary of the National Front for several years when, in 2011, Jean-Marie Le Pen passed the torch of the movement to his daughter Marine, at the Palais des Congrès in Tours. “Me, I don’t see a break in ithe says. It's a historic moment, it's true, there was an evolution but it was still continuity. »
“Sovereignism and popular anchoring”
When Gille Godefroy joined the National Front, the movement was much more confidential and had not yet been demonized. “I especially remember a meal in the countryside with Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2012 with the activists from Tours.he specifies. For once, it’s truly a personal memory. I was sitting next to him, he was impressive. He said a little word to the activists he knew. He launched into a three-quarter-hour speech, without notes. He was a real tribune. »
A praise which eludes the known slip-ups of the historic leader. Gilles Godefroy rather retains “legacy”. “What remains and which Marine Le Pen inherited is sovereignismconcludes Gilles Godefroy… And above all the popular roots of the movement. »