“Do you prefer Marine or Jordan?” The question bounces from one corner to the other of the Palais Nikaïa this Sunday afternoon, carried by the dozens of cameras which move their lenses between the stands. On the last empty chairs, the sleeping tricolor flags are just waiting for a signal to wake up and flutter to the rhythm of the cheers.
The speakers spit Happy, I Will Survive, Celebration, Spacer… The last spectators, often very young, return to their places waving in a fair atmosphere.
At 2 p.m. sharp, Alexandra Masson opens the festivities. “There are more than 5,000 of you”ignites the Riviera MP, defector from LR. It recalls the transalpine origins of the territory – “Here, 160 years ago, we wanted to be French.” Then tackles his former political family with a touch of greed – “In 2007, Sarkozy promised us Karcher and we got Kouchner.”
The boss of the RN Maralpine federation introduces two round tables on social justice, insecurity and immigration, to which the activists pay polite attention.
“O Marine, I love you!”
Finally, Marine Le Pen appears. It crosses space under a storm of decibels. And the room explodes.
“If you knew the immense strength you exude, attacks the boss of the frontist deputies. I particularly feel this strength here in Nice. Nice is the starting point of the great national union that we are calling for. The next campaign starts here, with you!”
As Jordan Bardella will also do, she cajoles her new Riviera ally. “Political courage is rare, she begins. Éric Ciotti undeniably knew how to demonstrate this. THE [séisme] policy that it brought about is anything but anecdotal: it is a major event in the recomposition which is taking shape behind the mediocre arrangements. It will be, tomorrow, the condition of victory.”
A voice thunders in silence: “O Marine, I love you!” Jean-Marie Le Pen’s daughter smiles and continues: “With [ce gouvernement], the security of the French is on alternating guard. In week A, it is entrusted to the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau then, in week B, to the Minister of Justice Didier Migaud, the quintessence of candid leftism.”
“Those who ruined France”
She points “a major divergence” with the host of Place Beauvau, who declared in The Sunday Journal that the rule of law is not “not intangible, nor sacred.” “It is not the rule of law as such that must be contested, it is quite the opposite, she says. We are the guarantors of it. What is questionable is the way in which they overturned this notion to make it an instrument of submission of people, who would no longer have the democratic freedom to develop the law. We will never accept this!”
Marine Le Pen still scratches “those who ruined France and lied to the French”denounces at length the migration policy “lax”then gives the floor to Jordan Bardella.
“Our victory was only delayed”
The president of the National Rally, curiously, takes up almost theme after theme the intervention of his political godmother. It stands out, however, for the virulence of its attack against “the extreme left”.
“They made anti-Semitism an electoral argument, he growls. A year ago, Israel experienced both its September 11th and its Bataclan. Jean-Luc Mélenchon called on students in France to display Palestinian standards in front of the faculties. We will not give them anything. We are the only bulwark against the enemies of the Republic!”
“Our victory has not been annulled, it has only been postponed, he insists. I know your impatience; I share your sense of urgency in the face of this sad spectacle. The moments of truth are not far away. We are preparing the great change, we embody hope. I need you, your fervor, your determination!”
The Nikaïa Palace is standing. “More than ever, be French, proud to be French, he shouts. Until victory!”
Marine Le Pen joins him on stage, kisses him to an ovation. In the audience, a teenager raises his fists and shouts at the head of state: “Manu, you can disband whenever you want. We’re ready! “
