May 1: In Le Havre, Marine Le Pen intends to bring “social peace”

Special envoy to Le Havre

Balavoine and Dalida. Cuts of kir and duck terrine. Welcome to Le Havre, for May 1st of the National Gathering. The traditional demonstrators march through the streets of the city, some protesting against the presence of the RN in this former communist stronghold. On the docks, a platform, covered with a blue fabric, stands in the middle of the room, decorated in blue-white-red colors. All around, dozens of tables welcome elected officials and Frontist activists, who have come to attend the Nation Day of the flame party.

Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella take care of their arrival, strolling along the stage before sitting down at the head table. The deputies of Moselle and Gironde Laurent Jacobelli and Edwige Diaz open the ball. Followed by the vice-president of the National Assembly Sébastien Chenu, who salutes the action of the deputies National Rally since the beginning of the mandate. "The French have seen the arrival not of the extreme right, but of men and women of the people, elected officials in the image of France", asserts the parliamentarian, making the deputies applaud, in recognition of the work accomplished.

2 p.m. The guests rise, the flags are waved. Marine Le Pen begins her speech. “Dear friends, I will never stop telling you, politics is an act of love,” begins the MP for Pas-de-Calais, who then paints a long picture of a country in pain. “Scenes of tension, chaos that has become endemic, a feeling of exhaustion, violence, everywhere, emerging from nowhere”. And, inevitably, only one person responsible for this disastrous picture: Emmanuel Macron, booed by the supporters of the unfortunate presidential candidate. And Marine Le Pen to deliver possible solutions to her audience. Tracks summarized in four main axes. The digital transition, first, which should be carried out for “the European Nations”. The ecological transition, which would, according to her, be embodied by Marine Le Pen, and would consist in “refusing globalism”. The demographic transition, again, against which the RN intends to fight, to arrive at a “stopping of migratory flows”. Applause from the room. Civilizational transition, finally, "instilled by wokism" and denounced by Marine Le Pen, who points to "the risk of erasing millennia of history and culture". A speech, therefore, centered on a “national recovery project” supposed to bring back “social peace”, but little focused, on this May 1, on the workers.

A theme reserved for Jordan Bardella. Musical interstice. 40 minutes later, the party president takes over. "Unlike this left-NUPES, which beats the pavement outside: we do not oppose the defense of the Workers to that of the Fatherland", claims the MEP, cut by a Marseillaise intoned in the room. This is followed by a eulogy of the nation, Jordan Bardella style, citing in turn, pell-mell, Joan of Arc, Victor Hugo, the taxis of the Marne and Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves. “A people without history is a people in ruins that can be erased (…) Imagine this fraternal France, where the French would be the first served at home by the establishment of national priority”, begins to dream the president of party, selling a return to "social peace through the return of authority". After twenty minutes of speaking – half less than Marine Le Pen – the crowd rises to the sound of “Marine president”. A last Marseillaise and the room empties, towards the station. Appointment is already made for next year.