French snap elections: New far-right MEPs go back to campaigning

5 months ago 27

The dissolution of the French National Assembly has given EU lawmakers from the far-right Rassemblement National a dilemma over whether they should run in the national parliamentary election later this month and enter the French assembly rather than the European one.

Several of them confirmed to Euractiv that they would be standing in the snap parliamentary election on 30 June and 7 July, where Marine Le Pen’s far-right RN will seek to cement its victory over liberal centrist President Emmanuel Macron, started in the European elections, and take control of the national assembly.

With 31.5% of the vote, the RN obtained twice as many votes as the list supported by Macron, prompting the president to dissolve the National Assembly, France’s lower chamber, on Sunday evening (9 June).

The party discussed candidacies for parliamentary elections party on Monday before they are validated on Tuesday, re-elected MEP Virginie Joron told Euractiv.

Many newly elected MEPs are likely to go on the campaign trail again for a set in the French parliament.

This is the case for Marie Dauchy, re-elected on Sunday for the European parliament. Her colleague Virginie Joron, also re-elected as an MEP, confirmed to Euractiv that Dauchy would run for the French assembly, and she could do the same.

Mathilde Androüet, also re-elected to the European Parliament on Sunday, said she would “make [her]self available if the RN considers it is important [for me to be] a candidate”, she told Euractiv.

“The circumstances are historic. We have the opportunity to create an alternative,” RN’s Anne-Sophie Frigout told Euractiv, after posting on X that she “will obviously be standing in the second constituency of the Marne to take my revenge”.

She was elected to the National Assembly in 2022, but her election was annulled.

The newcomers

Out of the 30 RN MEPs elected in Sunday’s European elections, 16 had run for a seat in the National Assembly two years ago. These could be the same people standing for re-election in the coming weeks.

This is the case for several new members of the European Parliament, who could launch their national campaign, as Pierre-Romain Thionnet, the RN’s youth director (RNJ), is considering doing.

“It’s a possibility, of course. It will be discussed in the next few hours,” he told Euractiv.

So why do it?

In 2022, MEPs Joëlle Mélin and Hélène Laporte joined the Parisian hemicycle.

“The strategy was simple: Marine Le Pen [candidate and elected MEP] wanted to work with people she knew,” Laporte told Euractiv. Laporte, the vice-president of the National Assembly, thinks “it’s normal for a party to put the best people on the campaign”, such as the elected MEPs.

Despite the perks offered by a seat in the European Parliament, according to RN MEP Thierry Mariani, “working in politics at home offers a lot more visibility than in Brussels or Strasbourg”.

The legislative elections will take place between 30 June and 7 July. If the RN MPs come out on top, the head of their list for the European elections and RN president, Jordan Bardella, could also leave European Parliament, for France’s assembly, or even the post of prime minister.

[Edited by Aurélie Pugnet/Zoran Radosavljevic]