Sanitary cordon cut
Article reserved for subscribers
By declaring that it did not want to censor the new Prime Minister a priori, the RN made his accession to Matignon possible. And holds the rest of the story in its hands.
“Let the dust settle,” advised Marine Le Pen in July to her flock, still stunned by the poor performance in the legislative elections. Jordan Bardella in particular, who already saw himself as Prime Minister at the head of an absolute majority, had difficulty swallowing his third place, behind the left and the outgoing relative majority and even spoke of “defeat”. The “calm of the old troops” claimed by the three-time presidential candidate has finally paid off. A little less than two months later, the dust has settled, and the leader of the French far right reappears as a prime minister maker.
By agreeing not to censor Michel Barnier a priori, the deputies of the National Rally (RN) have just made possible the tenure of the former Brexit negotiator at Matignon. “The nomination of Michel Barnier seems to meet at least the first criterion that we had requested, that is to say a man who is respectful of the different political forces and who is capable of addressing the RN […] in the same way as other groups,” said Le Pen on Thursday, September 5. And she recalled the other conditions set for not giving up: “Changing the voting method” towards proportionality and “the taking in c