‘A little victory of sorts’: Le Pen is still revered in ‘peripheral France’
DOWN but by no means out, Marine Le Pen has defiantly called her second presidential defeat to Emmanuel Macron a “brilliant victory” for her National Rally party, which secured its highest score in French political history.
After clinching 41.5 per cent of the vote nationwide in Sunday’s presidential run-off with more than 13.3million votes, she has made it clear she has no intention of standing down and will lead the fight for upcoming parliamentary elections.
Nowhere in mainland France was her score as high as the Aisne département in the northern Hautsde-france region, a Le Pen heartland, where she took almost 60 per cent.
Villers-cotterêts was among the many towns in the area that voted for the nationalist Eurosceptic.
In the birthplace of The Three Musketeers author Alexandre Dumas, residents said they were disappointed but not surprised by Mr Macron’s victory, nor did they think Ms Le Pen should give up.
“It’s a little victory of sorts,” said Jean Jacques Legros, a 68-year-old lifelong resident who voted for the losing candidate.
“Every election she gets a little bit closer to the presidency. We’ll see what happens in five years.”
Her score has increased over the past five years in Villers-cotterêts, which has had a National Rally mayor since 2014.
Located around 80km from Paris, it is part of what geographer Christophe Guilluy has famously dubbed “peripheral France” that are cut off from urban areas, just the type of area that Ms Le Pen has pledged to save from rising living costs and immigration.
Some locals felt the town had become flooded with too many people from abroad. “Every day we see new faces, foreigners from all over,” said Mr Legros. “We can’t say that France is for the French anymore – we’re not at home here.”
The complaint was ironic given that Villers-cotterêts is famous as the official birthplace of the French language by a 1539 decree. Mr Macron himself has presided over a €100 million restoration drive of the town’s Renaissance chateau that belonged to King Francis I, which will soon house an International City of the French language.
In a visit last year, Mr Macron said it was a “town that is in doubt” and had been “buffeted by the great upheavals of the world and sometimes caved in to a few sirens of withdrawal”. The project would, he said, “give it new momentum”.
He clearly still has his work cut out to convince them of that.
Nationwide, the cordon sanitaire, the informal agreement that French voters will back anyone but the hard-right, did its work. But Ms Le Pen, who Mr Macron trounced in 2017 by 66 per cent, has eaten into the president’s lead.
Indeed, his 10 million-vote lead five years ago has been almost halved to 5.5 million.
Éric Zemmour, who was knocked out in the first round of the presidential election, crowed, “Alas, alas, alas, it is the eighth time that defeat has hit the name Le Pen.”
The hard-right firebrand was referring to the long history of the Le Pen dynasty in the race for the Élysée.
Jean-marie Le Pen, the defeated candidate’s father, ran in 1974, 1988, 1995, 2002 and 2007.
When he reached the second round, horrified voters rushed to Jacques Chirac, who roundly defeated Le Pen senior by 82.2 per cent. Twenty years later, however, his daughter has more than doubled his 17.8 per cent.
Whether she can build on this to win in five years’ time, when Mr Macron will not be allowed to run, is uncertain.
What is clear is that she has been more, if not entirely, successful in de-demonising her party, which like Mr Macron’s En Marche is built around her personality.
Ms Le Pen has vowed to fight on but may feel that a new, more dynamic face is needed soon.
Jordan Bardella, aged just 26, could fit the bill in future. Marion Maréchal, Ms Le Pen’s niece, could also step in but relations are strained after she endorsed Mr Zemmour, whose call for an “alliance of Right-wingers and patriots” has fallen on deaf ears in the Le Pen camp to date.
Ms Le Pen has not yet ruled out taking another crack at France’s top job in five years’ time.
Her father Jean-marie, who she ousted to lead the party he co-founded, said: “Given that I haven’t stopped at 94, I don’t see why she should stop at 55. She hasn’t earned her retirement.”
The veteran firebrand with convictions for anti-semitism and Holocaust denial is renowned as a canny political observer.
“It is time to organise the next victory,” he said, turning to June’s legislative elections. “Marine, Zemmour, Bardella and others are capable but on condition to go further in coming together,” he warned.
For now, such calls for unity among the French nationalist hard-right have not been answered.
Whether or not others swing behind Ms Le Pen, there is no doubt her very personal brand of populism continues to strike a chord with supporters.
Jean Paul Vigny, a 62-year-old retiree and fan, said: “I’m not disappointed in her. I still think she can win in the future.”