Reconquête, Eric Zemmour’s party, is organising its summer university on Saturday in Orange, in Vaucluse: in the trough of the wave after the legislative elections, the far-right party hopes to bounce back thanks to the introduction of proportional representation and field work.
With around forty elected officials in France, Reconquête brings together its executives and supporters in Orange, a city led by a Reconquête mayor, Yann Bompard. The aim of this day: “To make ourselves known”, says Sarah Knafo, a party executive, convinced that the movement’s ideas are “popular” with the French.
On the program: conferences, concert and round table with far-right influencers like Mila, Marguerite Stern, or Thaïs d’Escufon on the theme of the “cultural fight against the left”. “A subject that is very close to our hearts and which sets the tone for what we are going to do in the coming weeks”, specifies Sarah Knafo.
Eric Zemmour, the founder and president of Reconquête, will speak at 4 p.m. He should reveal himself with “a line quite different from what he has said in the past,” promises the MEP.
In this political return, the party faces several challenges. First, it must recover from the failure suffered during the legislative elections. With 0.6% of the votes cast, Reconquête did not send any MPs to the Chamber, a sign of a difficult local establishment.
Anchoring in the territories is one of the projects that awaits Reconquête to establish itself sustainably in the political landscape. “We have candidates throughout France who are going to work on it,” assures the elected official.
The far-right movement is pinning its hopes on the introduction of proportional representation. “For us, it’s a guarantee of having elected representatives,” explains Sarah Knafo, the last Reconquête representative in the European Parliament.
– Hemorrhage –
The young party must indeed heal the wounds of an internal political crisis that arose in the aftermath of the European elections. Four of the five Reconquête MEPs fled the party to join the RN-Ciotti alliance in view of the early legislative elections, under the leadership of Marion Maréchal.
“She promised them prospects of a ministry with Jordan Bardella. They believed in it and today they are biting their fingers a little,” says a party insider. But the haemorrhage does not seem to have been contained. On Tuesday, the only Reconquête senator, Stéphane Ravier, announced that he was leaving the party in turn, also a supporter of a union of the right.
With his movement Union of the Right for the Republic, Eric Ciotti has taken up the torch of the union of conservative forces long defended by Eric Zemmour.
Sarah Knafo looks at him with a “good eye”. She even sees it as a victory for the Zemmourists. “The more people take up our slogans and our ways of thinking, the stronger we are,” she says.
All the more so since the party’s leaders believe that Eric Ciotti is not a “presidential” figure and therefore does not “directly compete with them”. Because it is obviously the 2027 presidential election that Eric Zemmour has in his sights.
Believing that the RN is becoming trivialized by pursuing a strategy of de-demonization, he wants to position himself as a genuine opposition force and could benefit from the RN’s tacit support for Michel Barnier’s government.
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