A few days before the European meeting of far-right parties scheduled for May Day celebrations, Christian Estrosi launched the counter-offensive: an op-ed in the daily newspaper “Le Monde,” co-signed by a number of political and public figures (370 in total), denouncing the provocative nature of this demonstration and directly attacking Marine Le Pen.
Although she is not formally the organizer, it is the European parliamentary group, which includes 36 deputies of this ideological movement, that holds the initiative and is certainly its inspiration.
The indictment, with which this op-ed fully aligns, is primarily political and aims to position its author as the champion of “real” democracy: “Their May 1st will be a gathering of hate and exclusion, aiming to instrumentalize this celebration into a partisan extremist propaganda action, which in itself constitutes a provocation that we condemn,” reads the text initiated by Mr. Estrosi.
The National Front, through the voice of departmental secretary Lionel Tivoli, has already responded sharply: “Marine is at home here,” referring to the electoral results of their President and European deputy.
Moreover, how and why could representatives of elected parties who sit in national parliaments (and sometimes participate in government) and the European parliament be prevented from meeting freely? For the record, this is not the first time Marine Le Pen has held a meeting in Nice and its region, and to date, everything has gone smoothly.
In fact, isn’t this reaction disproportionate and serving the FN’s cause, which wants to transform this meeting into a kind of founding act for the anti-Europe transnational party, by giving it excessive notoriety far beyond what it deserves?
Unless… the Mayor of Nice, a savvy politician, is making a political maneuver with the 2020 municipal elections in mind.
A passage from the text indicates this angle: “if the president of the National Front chose to come to Nice (…) it is also likely because she hopes to find new allies ready to succumb to her appeals.”
As they say in these cases: no names, but follow my gaze!
