A few days before the European elections, the National Rally is at the origin of a new controversy. Sunday June 2, the list led by Jordan Bardella drew the wrath of General Christian Rodriguez, the director of the national gendarmerie. In question, an RN poster crossed out with the words “I am a gendarme, I vote Bardella”.
The disputed visual shows a person photographed from behind, dressed in a police uniform. General Christian Rodriguez sees this a breach of “military status”.
Published on the social network X by the far-right party account, it is accompanied by the comment: “Because I want the French to live in safety in a country where order is respected and where one does not risk one’s life for a sideways glance, on June 9 I vote for Jordan Bardella’s list.”
“You seem to be unaware that military status prohibits this type of message. And the least we can expect is that you respect the gendarme and his status, in these periods when his commitment can lead him to the worst consequences”, protested on the same network the boss of the national gendarmerie, estimating that the message was “inadmissible”.
“The gendarmes respect the duty of reserve in their functions, unlike youwho publicly take on a political movement in the middle of an official campaign”, responded to Christian Rodriguez the president of the RN and European candidate Jordan Bardella.
The Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, for his part estimated that “rrespecting the Republic means NEVER exploiting the army which protects the Nation for electoral purposes.
Requested by AFP, the National Rally considered that the publication was “completely legal”, the image not showing “the face of a policeman”. “We publish visuals on many professions,” the flame party further argued, with particular reference to another poster bearing the slogan “I am a soldier, I vote Bardella”, illustrated with a close-up of a person in profile wearing a French military uniform, without showing his face.
“Against a European army which would cause us to lose a new part of sovereignty and against the sharing of our nuclear deterrent: on June 9, I am mobilizing and I am going to vote!”, it is written.
According to the government website Service Public, “the duty of reserve designates the obligation imposed on all public officials to demonstrate reserve and restraint in the written and oral expression of their personal opinions”, “during and outside working hours”. The Defense Code also provides that “opinions or beliefs, particularly philosophical, religious or political, are free. However, they can only be expressed outside of service and with the reservation required by the military state. This rule applies to all means of expression.”
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