French President Emmanuel Macron wants to win over far-right leader Marine Le Pen before a possible duel in the 2022 election by using votes on the right, with a stubborn interior minister and a bill banning radical Islamists hokslaan.
Home Secretary Gerald Darmanin visibly shocked Le Pen himself, even surprising his own party colleagues and upsetting the left with a remark in which he accused Le Pen of ‘softness’ over Islam during a debate on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the National Assembly will vote on a law that seeks to suppress Islamic radicalism, which the government says will combat the French secular system but which critics see as an insult to religious freedom.
According to analysts, Macron, who came to power as a centrist reformer in 2017, has been pulling noticeably to the right in recent months as he sniffs that his presidential election campaign in 2022 will amount to a thinning duel with National Rally (RN) leader Le Pen .
The key to this change was Darmanin, 38, a rising star on the right wing of Macron’s party, who has taken a hard line since becoming interior minister last year.
Darmanin’s appointment comes despite an ongoing investigation into a rape claim he vehemently denies.
“You’re starting to feel soft, you need to take vitamins again. You’re not ready to legislate on religion and you’re saying Islam is not even a problem,” he told Le Pen in an apparent attempt to kill her. attempt for a more moderate image.
Le Pen looked dazed and replied that she did not ‘intend to attack Islam’ as a religion like any other ‘because I was deeply attached to our French values. I want to maintain the … total freedom of worship. ‘
– Neck and neck for 2022 –
The legislation before parliament, which will tighten the rules on issues ranging from religion-based education to polygamy, is called the anti-separatism bill, as ministers fear Islamists will create communities detached from France’s strictly secular identity.
“Our country is sick of separatism, especially Islamism which harms our national unity,” Darmanin told parliament when he began debating the bill this month.
It was discussed in a very charged atmosphere in France after three attacks late last year by radical Islamists, including the beheading of pastor Samuel Paty in October, which showed his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Le Pen was easily beaten by Macron in late 2017, a result of a horrific performance in a televised debate against him.
In the intervening years, she tried to sharpen the image of the anti-immigration and anti-Europe party, to give it a younger lead, to change its name from the National Front (FN) and to give up of the legacy of the founder, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Recent polls suggest a much tougher race this time around, with Macron and Le Pen’s neck-and-neck in the offensive.
With left demoralized after the presidency of Francois Hollande, the one factor of uncertainty is the possible appearance of a figure on the right, but no clear candidate has appeared.
– ‘Unexpected gift’ –
The Le Monde daily described the debate between Darmanin and Le Pen in the debate as ‘unprecedented’, adding that it was an ‘unexpected gift’ for the far-right leader who was portrayed by a minister as moderate without changing her policy. had to change.
“Usually the leader of the extreme right-wing party is accused of being too radical, too intolerant and of violating the values of the republic. Mr Darmanin has chosen the opposite strategy and is trying to be firmer than she is,” he said. he said.
Leading Green politician Yannick Jadot, himself a potential rival in 2022, described the debate on BFM TV as ‘staggering’, adding that he was afraid of the idea that the government’s only claim to legitimacy was a barrage of to be the extreme right ‘.
A source from the French government, who asked not to be named, said the accusation of ‘softness’ laid at Le Pen could weaken her within her own camp, but also the risk ‘of her radicals’ image in the eyes of other voters to soften before 2022.
The Macron loyalist and Darmanin’s predecessor as Home Secretary Christophe Castaner told French radio that there should not be so much reading in softness. “I do not think for a moment that Gerald Darmanin (Marine Le Pen) shares his beliefs.”
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