Maréchal, a former National Rally parliamentarian and the granddaughter of party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, had turned her back on her aunt to join the ranks of Reconquest — a party founded by maverick journalist and pundit Éric Zemmour — ahead of the 2022 presidential race.
Although her party is far smaller than National Rally and on Sunday only squeaked past the 5 percent threshold necessary in France to elect MEPs, those supporters could well be critical in a close-run national contest.
Since election night, Maréchal has been pushing for her new party to form an alliance with her old one. “The national camp obtained a historic score,” Maréchal wrote in a post on X Monday. “Given the gravity of the situation for our country, I was keen to meet with Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella to seize the opportunity to build a government coalition.”
In a TV interview following the meeting, Le Pen said she would meet with a series of political leaders in order to “build a majority,” without specifying whether she had reached an agreement with her niece. Le Pen also noted that National Rally would be willing to refrain from putting up candidates against outgoing MPs from the conservative Les Républicains party were they to reach an agreement with her party.
While Maréchal is making her push for unity abundantly clear, it remains uncertain if her party’s president and founder, Zemmour, is on board.
Suggesting there is a rift between the two most prominent personalities in Reconquest, Bardella praised the “constructive attitude” of Maréchal “as opposed to Éric Zemmour.”