Former far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Wednesday, May 1, urged voters to inflict "the most crushing electoral sanction" possible on President Emmanuel Macron's party in European elections next month. The parliamentary leader of the Rassemblement National (RN) spoke at a party congress in the run-up to the European Parliament contest on June 9.
"We must counter them, we must sanction them, we must dismiss them," she told followers in the southern city of Perpignan. "We must inflict on those in power the most crushing electoral sanction that we can," she said.
The RN's list for the elections is not led by Le Pen but by her youthful protégé Jordan Bardella, just 28, who has already succeeded the veteran campaigner as party leader. The far-right party has been leading in the polls, well ahead of Macron's centrist alliance.
Seeking to counter youth with youth, Macron has deployed the until now little-known European parliament member Valérie Hayer, 38, to lead the ruling coalition's list for the vote.
"This sanction will be measured by the gap between the list led by Jordan Bardella" and the Renaissance list, Le Pen added.
Second place in the European polls would be a major embarrassment for Macron, who throughout his almost seven years in office has presented himself as a bulwark against the far right as more radical forces gained ground elsewhere in Europe. A recent Le Monde poll found that Hayer's list is increasingly threatened of being caught by the Socialists, who tail her by just three points.
Le Pen urged followers to vote for Bardella's list to ensure that June 9 was the first stage of a great change in Europe, "but also because there are presidential elections in 2027 in France."