The group of ambassadors from the eight countries that share a border with metropolitan France — Germany, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Monaco and Andorra — already met with conservative presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau in September. They are planning to host meetings with the other presidential hopefuls, including far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, at their respective embassies in the coming months.
“I don’t know if it reassured or worried them,” said an adviser to Marine Le Pen who accompanied her to the lunch. “What is sure is that they can now report back to their capitals what the National Rally wants to do,” the adviser added.
Le Pen was mainly questioned about her plans to downsize the EU and on bilateral issues, as well as U.S. President Donald Trump after his seismic defeat in the midterm elections.
While in the past, the National Rally has been supportive of Trump, the party has progressively distanced itself from the U.S. president. The National Rally’s Jordan Bardella on Wednesday said his party was not affected by the result and suggested that Trump’s popularity was undermined by the war in the Middle East and its economic consequences.
Le Pen has also been campaigning for a harsher approach on migration, which would involve stricter checks at the borders, potentially impacting countries whose envoys she met on Wednesday. All of them, apart from Andorra and Monaco, are part of the Schengen free-movement area.
“There is a general interest on what would her stance be on the key issues of mutual interest and cooperation on which we are working with France,” said one diplomat from a participating country.
“It was a very frank exchange. She told them what she says everywhere and she was able to elaborate on a number of topics a little more at length than she would do on TV,” the same adviser said, adding that Le Pen regularly meets ambassadors.
Back in December, Le Pen and her No. 2 Jordan Bardella also met with U.S. ambassador Charles Kushner. The far-right leaders are also preparing the ground for a possible election win by meeting top French business executives.
Marcelo Wesfreid and Nicolas Camut contributed to this report.