French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen told thousands of supporters on Sunday that they are on the precipice of a national “Renaissance” as she officially opened her campaign for the Élysée Palace.
Striking an air of confidence in the race to replace President Emmanuel Macron, whose second and final term will conclude in the Spring, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen invoked the spirit of Joan of Arc as her party held its annual conference in the city of Orléans, the former capital of the country, which was liberated by St. Joan nearly six centuries ago.
The party is not new to invoking Joan of Arc, having first adopted the national saint as a symbol in 1979 under then-leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Although his own presidential ambitions never materialised — he reached the second round of voting only once during his decades-long career –the late Le Pen’s daughter is now the undisputed frontrunner in the 2027 election.
PARIS, FRANCE – MAY 01 2016: France’s Front National (FN) founder and honorary President, Jean-Marie Le Pen addresses the crowd on stage during the party’s annual rally honouring Joan of Arc on May 1, 2016 in Paris, France. (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)
The younger Le Pen told the 8,500 in attendance on Saturday in Orléans that after a long wait, the “moment of the patriots” was upon them, saying: “History is not written in resignation, but in courage. It is drawn in will and tenacity. We all fight for our homeland, French of the metropolis, overseas and the world, French of cities, suburbs and the countryside. This essential struggle reminds us that serving one’s country is a natural mission, an immense responsibility, a sacred duty.”
“Here in Orléans, the city of our national heroine, the symbol of the refusal of resignation and fatalism, begins the great battle for France, the one that will lead our country to the dawn of a new day. It is for our beautiful country, the return of hope and power, of pride and greatness. It will be for the world, the return of France.”
Despite the chaos embroiling the country amid the Islamo-leftist riots, Le Pen urged her supporters to reject the politics of despair, saying that words such as “decline,” “erasure”, “riots,” “chaos,” “downfall,” and “disappearance” should not stop the French people from standing up for themselves. “We believe in France, and therefore we believe in the future,” she said.
The National Rally leader noted that before the Maid of Orléans could liberate the city, she first had to overcome the naysayers, those who push the idea of the “impossibility of victory”. She said that only the “weak, stupid, or cowardly” urge people not to fight for their country, while those who would seek to “preserve their place and their privileges… exhort you not to do anything, not to move, not to change anything.”
However, Le Pen argued that for the patriotic, for the people who “have the will to act”, nothing is impossible, as they share in the “great unifying ambitious project”.
“There is a beautiful human and political adventure to share. There is a story to write, a destiny to realise,” Le Pen said, saying that she has the “firm conviction that we are living through a period comparable to the period preceding the Renaissance.”
But to realise this national rebirth, Le Pen argued that the country must “turn its back” on today’s harmful ideologies that obscure truth, including Islamism and the far-left movements of La France Insoumise (LFI/France in Rebellion) and its “armed wing, the Antifa rioters”.
She also urged the public to reject the “punitive” green agenda, which she said represents a form of “political nihilism, with its apocalyptic vision that announces the end of the world every week, even going so far as to suggest giving up having children.”
Instead, Le Pen said the state’s power should be devoted to “the protection of the French” and to guarantee the “right to security.”
Vowing to “restore” the rule of law within six months of coming into office, she said: “Who can say there is a rule of law when criminals go unpunished? When mafias impose their laws in neighbourhoods? Who can say there is a rule of law when hordes come to ransack and burn our buildings or organise veritable raids?”
Summarising her vision for the country’s future, Le Pen said her “protective vision will benefit everyone” by protecting the nation from mass migration, which she said “overwhelms our cities and now our villages”. Meanwhile, she vowed to restore French citizens’ purchasing power by lowering energy taxes.
However, true to her third-way politics, Le Pen also vowed to maintain strong state-run education and healthcare systems and to guarantee “means for a dignified and peaceful life for the elderly”.
In service of her message of unity, the conference in Orléans saw a display of the unification of the Le Pen dynasty, with the leader of the Identity–Liberties, Marion Maréchal, joining her aunt as a fully fledged supporter after previously breaking with the party of her grandfather in 2022 to support then-rival candidate Éric Zemmour.
The broad tent in Orléans also saw Éric Ciotti, Mayor of Nice and leader of the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party, give a speech supporting Le Pen’s candidacy. The former head of the centre-right Les Républicains party urged his former comrades to rally around Le Pen.
“I am calling today on my former LR friends, who are quarrelling to be the extras in a foretold defeat, to join this great hope that is rising. I am calling on all LR parliamentarians to leave the Macronist Titanic. I say to them, come back, come back home!” he said.
“Let us muster all our strength to convince the French that France is not finished!”
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