By Elizabeth Pineau and Tassilo Hummel
PARIS (Reuters) – After a shock defeat in France’s legislative elections, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) will double down on eliminating problematic candidates to counter the main parties’ successful efforts to block the far-right from power.
Polls have suggested the RN will secure the most seats in the two-round snap election, called by French President Emmanuel Macron after Le Pen’s party was the clear winner in June’s European parliamentary elections.
But the RN ended up placing third, with hopes of becoming France’s first far-right government since World War II thwarted by centrist and left-wing parties that withdrew around 200 third-party candidates to unify the anti-RN vote.
The strategy, known as the “republican front”, is a feature of French political life and has been used for decades to prevent the RN from power.
RN officials and MPs who spoke to Reuters believe the party can overcome this electoral barricade if it is more professional, following the path laid out by Le Pen after she lost the 2017 presidential election to Macron. That means more screening of potential candidates and difficult party discipline to avoid expensive gaffes, they said.
In the run-up to the vote, media reports revealed the RN candidate who had a photo of a Nazi cover, and others who sought to defend against the party’s history of racism and antisemitism by saying that he had a Jewish eye doctor and a Muslim dentist. After the vote, a newly elected RN MP was expelled from the party’s parliamentary group for saying that French Arabs have no place in government.
“We have to avoid casting mistakes that are costly and obviously hurt us,” said Julien Masson, RN official in Brittany.
Heads have started to roll, with Gilles Pennelle, a member of the European Parliament, stepping down from his role as RN executive responsible for overseeing the list of candidates.
“He was blamed for a bad candidate, who was not up to the level,” Masson said.
Pennelle did not respond to a request for comment.
Two RN MPs told Reuters that there would be more media training to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing interview where the candidates appeared to be amateurs.
RN lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy said the party was being judged by unfair standards, but admitted it needed to do better.
“You definitely have to improve,” he told Reuters, adding that Le Pen’s protégé, Jordan Bardella, 28, would announce a proposal to address “organizational problems.”
Christophe Gervasi, who conducts private polling for the RN, said that as well as inexperienced and undisciplined recruits, the party’s tendency to be vague and inconsistent on policy proposals has reduced its credibility.
The party has pledged to reduce immigration, lower fuel costs and be tougher on crime, a common theme among far-right populist parties, but has dropped previous positions questioning EU and NATO membership.
Gervasi said that it will not be an easy task for the RN to overcome the republican front.
“There are endemic structural weaknesses that remain,” he said. “This system defends itself against the accession of the RN to power.”
Patrick Weil, a right-wing historian, said he doubted that the deep-clean RN would be enough to bulldoze the front of the republic. A lot will depend on how the next government will be and who will stand in the 2027 elections, where Le Pen will try for the fourth time for the presidency.
“If someone is popular, Marine le Pen will be defeated. If someone is unpopular, they will be elected,” he said.
Adélaïde Zulfikarpasic, of the BVA Xsight pollster, said that the surprising solidity of the republican front, which is predicted to collapse in this election, underlines the discomfort on the right.
“RNs are definitely still a little scary,” she said. “The demonization is not over yet.”
RISING TIDE?
Sunday’s result was not a complete disaster for the RN, which almost doubled its seats in the National Assembly. The party won almost a third of the popular vote, the highest record for the RN in a parliamentary election.
The party can now watch from the opposition benches as the center and left parties without the tradition of coalition building lead France through a period of political instability.
This could benefit the RN before the 2027 election.
“The tide is rising, but this time it hasn’t risen yet,” Le Pen said on Sunday. “Our victory is just too late.”
The day after the vote, Bardella admitted the party had made mistakes, including in the selection of some of its candidates, but said the seeds of victory had been sown.
Cities like Nangis, located about 75 km southeast of Paris in the agricultural plains of Brie, provide hope for the RN.
The constituency was in the hands of the main, conservative right for 66 years until the RN finally took over.
Isabelle Martin, a 52-year-old administrative worker, is among the locals who chose RN. He was disappointed that the mainstream parties were united to stop the RN from winning power at the national level, an arrangement he described as “les magouilles”, or dirty deals. But he predicted the ensuing political chaos would benefit the RN.
“Others have three years to prove they can do something good,” Martin said. “If it hasn’t been withdrawn by 2027, maybe (RN) has a chance.”
