Marine Le Pen’s niece seeks rightwing alliance for 2027 French election

{"text":[[{"start":8.9,"text":"Marion Maréchal, a member of the Le Pen family, has pitched a broad rightwing alliance as the only way for Rassemblement National to win the next French presidential election."}],[{"start":19.8,"text":"The 36-year-old niece of three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has made a political comeback as she seeks a central role in the campaign to succeed Emmanuel Macron in 2027. "}],[{"start":31.200000000000003,"text":"Maréchal told the FT that the far right in France should emulate how Giorgia Meloni rose to power in Italy by uniting the far right and traditional right. “This is the path that has enabled the nationalist right in Europe and elsewhere to take part in governments or even to lead them,” she said."}],[{"start":48.550000000000004,"text":"Maréchal espouses more socially and economically conservative views than the RN, unabashedly promoting Catholicism, warning about the dangers of what she calls France’s “Islamification” and the ‘‘woke agenda” on transgender rights and anti-racism. Critics accuse her of xenophobia and of attempts to undermine France’s secularism."}],[{"start":70.55000000000001,"text":"“I carry a complementary voice to the RN that can bring in a different set of voters. It includes being more engaged in protecting European civilisation and its Christian roots, more liberal on the economy and more conservative on social issues,” she said."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":86.05000000000001,"text":"Maréchal enjoys a popularity rate of up to 35 per cent, behind her aunt or RN party leader Jordan Bardella, but ahead of many established politicians vying for the presidency. "}],[{"start":96.9,"text":"She stopped using the Le Pen name in 2017 when she stepped back from politics. In 2022, she defected to a rival far-right party led by anti-Islam firebrand Éric Zemmour. That led to a two-year rift with Marine Le Pen, with the pair only reconciling when Maréchal broke with Zemmour. "}],[{"start":115.85000000000001,"text":"Her small Identité-Libertés (IDL) party is now allied with the RN, even as she continues to promote ideas that are taboo for her aunt."}],[{"start":126.50000000000001,"text":"With the publication of an autobiography titled If you feel like a Le Pen in January, Maréchal has sought to reassert her role in the family dynasty that for more than 50 years has been synonymous with the French far-right. Her late grandfather, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the Front National in the 1970s, used the title phrase in a letter to urge her to run for office at age 22. "}],[{"start":152,"text":"In the book, Maréchal casts herself as the guardian of the Le Pen family ethos of “refusing the politically correct, or easy conventions” and standing for the French people against the elite."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":163.25,"text":"Her message holds particular significance now since Marine Le Pen, who excluded her father from the party and rebranded it as RN as part of an effort to “detoxify” it from his antisemitic legacy, now faces a ban to stand for public office in an EU embezzlement case. "}],[{"start":180.4,"text":"Le Pen has already said Bardella would run in her place if she loses an appeal in July. Polls now show either Le Pen or Bardella would make the run-off with around 30 per cent of the vote, far ahead of other contenders."}],[{"start":193.15,"text":"But her exclusion would be a political earthquake because the Le Pen family for the first time in decades would no longer field a candidate for the presidency. "}],[{"start":201.75,"text":"Although Maréchal does not plan to run herself, she said she will throw herself into the 2027 campaign to try to forge a “union of the right”. "}],[{"start":210.2,"text":"“I am ready to go to battle because I have two young daughters, and every day that goes by, I can see my country decline,” she said. "}],[{"start":219.89999999999998,"text":"“We could, tomorrow, become a majority-Muslim country. And I know that such a country would no longer be France as we have known it, nor one where my daughters can be free French women. I feel a sense of urgency.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":233.04999999999998,"text":"Elected as a member of the European parliament in 2024, she sits in the same group with Meloni’s MEPs, a position that Maréchal said allows her to avoid the so-called cordon sanitaire that excludes the RN from positions of power within the assembly. Her husband Vincenzo Sofo is an MEP for Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, so the couple have known the Italian premier for years."}],[{"start":256.75,"text":"Maréchal says she has built bridges to traditional rightwing parties in the EU assembly, including the LR from France. “It allows us to be a pivot between the RN and the LR which is similar to the role I can play on the national level,” she said. "}],[{"start":270.75,"text":"Encouraged by her aunt to get to know Bardella, Maréchal now meets with him regularly to talk strategy and to discuss the RN’s preparations for the 2027 race. The party is working on a new platform, which is expected to include strict immigration controls, a crime crackdown and cutting France’s contribution to the EU budget. "}],[{"start":292.4,"text":"Le Pen and Bardella have also picked up their networking with business leaders. Le Pen recently dined with a small group of CEOs including Bernard Arnault and Total boss Patrick Pouyanné — a shift from the past when many were unwilling to meet with the RN."}],[{"start":307.2,"text":"Le Pen has long rejected relying solely on a rightwing union to win power, saying that she wants to appeal to “all the French”, including her long-held base of working-class and low-income voters, many of whom used to vote for the left. "}],[{"start":321.4,"text":"Maréchal acknowledges the differences, but points to Le Pen’s successful alliance with Éric Ciotti, who left the LR in 2024 to ally with the RN, helping him last month win the mayorship in Nice, France’s fifth-largest city."}],[{"start":336.15,"text":"“The vast majority of rightwing voters, regardless of which party they back, support unifying on the right,” she said. “There is nothing on a policy level which is irreconcilable between us that could not be handled within a coalition.” "}],[{"start":349.4,"text":"Maréchal said she could negotiate a joint platform with Le Pen, Bardella, Ciotti and LR leader Bruno Retailleau."}],[{"start":356.79999999999995,"text":"“What is sure is that [on the economy] the RN is a party that is undeniably more interventionist, more state-driven, and more redistributive than I am, but we also agree on many things,” Maréchal said."}],[{"start":371.09999999999997,"text":"Data visualisation by Janina Conboye"}],[{"start":381.6499999999999,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1776761676_8174.mp3"}