“The National Rally is not up for sale to the highest Macronist bidder, as opposed to [the conservative] Les Républicains and the Socialists,” Bardella hammered home on stage. “We are not like them.”
On Saturday, Lecornu signaled his intention to seek out support within moderate groups on the left in a wide-ranging interview with local newspapers, extending several entreaties and ruling out “a political deal” with the National Rally.
In private, Le Pen and her top lieutenants have likened a potential agreement between Macron’s camp and the Socialists to a mutual kiss of death.
While the far-right leader has refrained until now to call for the French president to step down, the crowd on Sunday chanted “Macron, démission,” seemingly following the lead of Bardella and others in the party’s top brass, who are urging the president to step down — something he has repeatedly ruled out.
That would present a potential challenge to Le Pen who is currently barred from running in an election over embezzlement — she denies all charges and will face an appeal trial in January to try and overturn the verdict.
To her supporters’ delight, she made it clear on stage that she was going nowhere. The far right leader emerged from the summer in a hawkish mood, turning the thumb down on the outgoing prime minister quicker than anyone thought, and boosting her supporters’ morale ahead of local elections in March.
“I am a determined, stubborn, combative woman, and I am not going to apologize for it.”