After the legislative elections, the National Rally is keeping a low profile

At the National Rally (RN), let’s not add to it. While on the right and the left, many are jostling to try to grab the post of Prime Minister, the Le Penist party, although buoyed by its results in the legislative and European elections, is speaking out little. Even the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games did not make Marine Le Pen react, while she infuriated her niece, Marion Maréchal, some Republicans and Philippe de Villiers.

It took an invitation during the consultation cycle launched at the end of August by Emmanuel Macron to bring the former presidential candidate and her right-hand man Jordan Bardella out of their summer torpor. “We expressed concern about the appointment of a Prime Minister while the National Assembly is not at work,” the RN president soberly commented. On August 29, Jordan Bardella did request that an extraordinary session of Parliament be held to debate a “major security stimulus law.” But given the context, his request has very little chance of being satisfied. On the other hand, it allows the party to remain present in the background. “No one has a majority, so there is no point in making a circus like the far left does, it is as absurd as it is useless,” argues RN MP Julien Odoul.

Above the fray

This strategy of withdrawal is not new. During the 2022 presidential election, Marine Le Pen won her electoral showdown with Éric Zemmour by being more discreet than her opponent. And during the riots last summer following the death of young Nahel Merzouk, the RN was less talkative than its opponents, even though security is one of its key themes. “Its ideas are circulating and are already well established,” says researcher Benjamin Tainturier, a specialist in the far right. The National Rally no longer needs a continuous presence since some of the editorialists and political scientists agree with it. It can place itself above the fray.” Furthermore, at a time when negotiations for the post of Prime Minister may appear to be a compromise or a power play far removed from reality, “the RN has every interest in not associating itself with a regime that is showing its dysfunctions,” continues Benjamin Tainturier. He has nothing to lose by not talking too much.”