The National Gathering relocates to Le Havre for a “Labor and Fatherland Day”

But why did Marine Le Pen come in Le Havre on 1er may ? Certainly to try to pick up crumbs from the social movement against pensions, in a party that captures most of the popular vote. Until now, and since 1979, the National Front religiously deposited the 1er May a wreath at the feet of one of the statues of Joan of Arc, but the enthusiasm, since the exclusion of Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2015, has singularly waned. In 2022, his daughter had abstained, and had sent Jordan Bardella, the future president of the National Rally (RN), to trample about twenty seconds in front of a statue with a handful of petrified executives.

This time, Jordan Bardella has chosen to make work a “Nation Day”, and in Le Havre, a city that has “an industrial and working-cl*** connotation” For “to give a nod to the world of work”. The RN intends to insist “on the story of an untraceable affection between the President of the Republic and the French people, which today threatens social peace in our country”, said the chairman of the far-right party. But Joan of Arc “remains the patron saint of France”recalled Marine Le Pen, and the RN will drop a wreath in Rouen.

More mischievously, Edouard Philippe, the mayor of Le Havre, could be one of the presidential candidates of 2027, and Marine Le Pen, who still considers himself “best placed” to compete, came to tickle the former Prime Minister while, “on the subject of pensions, Emmanuel Macron is worse”. Edouard Philippe was not mistaken. He tweeted the “one” of the local newspaper with the interview of Jordan Bardella who ensured “We are in Le Havre at home”adding a little word, ” but of course… “

Furnish the political agenda

On the merits, the RN does not have much to report, except to furnish the political agenda, a year before the European elections. The party organized a banquet in a vast shed in the docks, while a few thousand demonstrators organized a “counter-party”, both against the pension reform and the arrival of Marine Le Pen. Nearly 1,500 far-right activists calmly listened to Sébastien Chenu, one of the RN vice-presidents of the National ***embly, extol the record “of the most active group, the most mobilized, the most present” of the hemicycle, which acts “as a perfect republican” and thus demonstrates its “capacity, tomorrow, to govern”.

Then Marine Le Pen, between the pear and the cheese, held for a good half hour, without notes but not without enthusiasm, a rather vague speech where a few main lines float. For “this day of labor and fatherland”she sent a “deferential salute to hard-working and studious France” and continued on the decline of this great and beautiful nation, with the impression “to no longer know our country, which was that of elegance and refinement” and of course, “to no longer be with us”.

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