A candidate should not do that. This is in essence the call to order given to Jordan Bardella by Christian Rodriguez. The head of the national gendarmerie reacted strongly to an RN campaign visual, broadcast on X, and featuring a gendarme in uniform, from behind, with the following sentence: “I am a gendarme. On June 9, I vote for Bardella”, all accompanied by the party logo.
The representation of different trades supposed to “vote Bardella” on June 9 is part of a digital communications campaign by the RN. The use of the image of a soldier nevertheless raises several questions. It firstly concerns the duty of confidentiality of public officials, as highlighted on X by Christian Rodriguez.
“You seem to be unaware that military status prohibits this type of message. And the least we can expect is for you to respect the gendarme and his status, in these periods when his commitment can lead him to the worst consequences. This message is unacceptable,” he said.
Indeed, 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 time”.
For the military, the Defense Code also provides that “opinions or beliefs, particularly philosophical, religious or political, can only be expressed” outside of service and with the reserve required by the military state. This rule applies to all means of expression.”
“We are letting the French understand that the gendarmes are subservient to a party”
Nothing to worry about Jordan Bardella, however, who himself responded to the boss of the gendarmerie on official. They are not sub-citizens: they vote, a lot for the RN, which seems to upset you,” he observed.
“If you had a little awareness of the State and its officials, you would not behave like this, like an insulting politician,” responded the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. The RN also broadcast a second visual representing the upper body of a soldier in uniform displaying a tricolor badge with the same words: “I am a soldier. On June 9, I vote for Bardella.” For this tweet, it was the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu who stepped up to the plate. “Respecting the Republic means never using the army which protects the Nation for electoral purposes,” he commented on X.
Former gendarme, senator (LR) Henri Leroy considers the visuals of the RN “execrable”. “We are letting the French understand that the gendarmes are subservient to a party, which puts them in even more danger and they don’t need that. Whereas the gendarme is solely at the service of the Nation and the State,” he says.
“We have confirmation that the RN is not a republican party”
“It’s a way of saying: we’re at home. We understand that if this party unfortunately came to power, it would use the means of the State for its own benefit and the neutrality of the State would be violated,” warns the president of the socialist group in the Senate, Patrick Kanner.
“These visuals are quite revealing. It’s not because you put on a tie that you are respectable and we have confirmation that the RN is not a republican party. He doesn’t care about the Republic and its values. The army is at the service of all citizens and representing them in this way puts them in danger,” adds the head of the Senate environmental group, Guillaume Gontard.
Guest of the Public Senate morning, the vice-president of the RN, Sébastien Chenu brushed aside “this ridiculous controversy”. “The gendarmes respect the right of reserve individually […] But, we see it in all the studies, they mostly vote RN,” he explained.
This is not the first time that the RN has reached out to the military. In 2021, a column published on the Valeurs Actuelles website, co-signed by 1,000 soldiers including 20 retired generals, described a France “in peril”, prey to “suburban hordes” and “racial war” had received the support of Marine Le Pen. She replied to them in the same media: “Gentlemen generals, join me in the battle for France”.
In the last European elections, an IFOP study published by the Jean Jaurès foundation noted that in small army garrison towns, the RN vote was “very clearly higher than the departmental average”.
However, for the chairman of the Senate Law Committee, François Noël Buffet (LR), “these publications are politically but also legally reprehensible”. “From a legal point of view, we will see what the judge says,” adds Patrick Kanner.
What rules could the RN have broken?
This morning on -, Gabriel Attal insisted: “There is a law which says that political parties must not use the image, the logos of the gendarmerie, the police, the military”.
The visuals posted online by the RN feature either the French flag or the juxtaposition of the colors blue, white and red. The electoral code prohibits the use of the national emblem and the juxtaposition of these three colors “as long as it is likely to lead to confusion with the national emblem”. This ban concerns “posters and circulars (profession of faith (Editor’s note)”. The RN visuals are neither, and could be qualified as electoral leaflets. The law does not prohibit the use the three colors blue, white, red and the national emblem on leaflets.
“On the other hand, if we look at the content of the visuals, the gendarmerie logo appears clearly. This can suggest to voters that the gendarmerie has given its agreement and that it officially supports the RN for Europeans,” underlines Alexandra Aderno, lawyer, specialist in electoral law. “Therefore, we could consider that this leaflet constitutes a fraudulent maneuver likely to alter the sincerity of the vote. Any citizen can therefore refer the matter to the Council of State, the competent judge for European elections, in order to challenge the legality of the election. Traditionally, the judge uses a vote difference of between 1 and 4% to invalidate the election on the grounds of alteration of the sincerity of the vote,” she adds. In view of the polls, Jordan Bardella can therefore sleep peacefully.
