Candidate LR Valérie Pécresse debated, Wednesday, March 23, against Marion Maréchal in “Face à Baba” on C8. On the program: “What right for what France”. A look back at a historic quarrel that is likely to continue for a long time.
© JB Autissier / Panoramic / Bestimage
Marion Marshal , first to speak, first tries to ease tensions before they even begin to arise: “I’m not in the logic of a boxing fight. But the calm only lasts for a while. The first question to be asked by the support ofEric Zemmour will set fire to the powder: “Will you call to vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round? » VAlerie Pécresse replies that the question “does not arise” and adds: “It does not exist, it is not psychologically possible when you run for a presidential election […] I was asked this question including at the regionals. I never answered it. ” Marion Maréchal takes it from her and continues on her way: “You who say that Macron’s record is dramatic: why not say that it’s normal not to vote for him? If you fight it, you could tell…”
The candidate LR, relaxed, raises an eyebrow, smiles and explains that “there is a real divide between Emmanuel Macron and me”, first on “the vision of France [qu’il] you can [comme] a communitarian nation [avec] multiple identities, not me. She continues, this time on Vladimir Poutine : “I say it, I have a problem with Marion Maréchal and her mentor Éric Zemmour especially on their closeness with Vladimir Poutine. The tension is felt. Valérie Pécresse continues: “You said you would like to have lunch with him. I know him politically and I know that he only respects the balance of power and he does not want a standing France. When you are friends with Putin you are discredited to govern France. »
Marine Le Pen’s niece retorts that “her mentor Chirac” gave the Legion of Honor to the Russian dictator. Valérie Pécresse bounces back and adds: “Like France with Stalin when he was a dictator. Do you admit that he is a dictator? Marion Maréchal sighs, then replies that “it’s an authoritarian regime” and ends up saying, wearily: “if you like, he’s a dictator. »
Gallery: Marion Maréchal, Édouard Balladur… These betrayals that marked the presidential elections (Gala)
A hubbub of small sentences
A moment of tension follows after the candidate LR qualifies “Reconquest! of an “extreme right” party, a tension which will become more and more palpable until the end of the debate. Éric Zemmour’s protege then declared, regarding the “parliamentary right” represented by his evening opponent: “It’s a right that I find difficult to identify with strong markers [et] which diverge. She uses the terminology of the left to tax me as far-right, which, moreover, will allow you to call for Macron to vote in the second round. The extreme right is totalitarian regimes and our method of government or our ideology has nothing to do with that. It’s insulting. The parliamentary right, by using this discourse, contributed to throwing opprobrium on patriotic and national ideas. »
Valérie Pécresse then goes on about the words of Eric Zemmour’s program on Islam and asks him the following question: “Is Islam and Islamism the same thing? The director of ISSEP replies that “the person who confuses the two is you. You are the ones who go to Koranic schools with veiled girls, so you are the ones who cause this confusion and make a certain compromise in this regard. “The President of the Region then reports on all the measures she has taken – asking for the closure of the Pantin mosque following the assassination of Samuel Paty, banning the burqa in public space with Jean-François Copé – and adds: “I understand that Ms. Maréchal wants the right and the extreme right to merge. I say no, there is a sanitary cordon, we don’t have the same nature. »
Stung to the quick, Marion Maréchal returns to the words of Éric Ciotti and François-Xavier Bellamy (MEP LR), who said they would vote Éric Zemmour in the second round if he was facing Emmanuel Macron. Uncomfortable, candidate LR kicks in touch and remains focused on the candidate “Reconquest! “: “Eric Zemmour wants the merger. He is an accomplice of the extreme right because he will vote for Marine Le Pen. (…) You are an accomplice of the extreme right. ” Marion Maréchal criticizes his point of view: “By saying this, you insult millions of voters and if the right is disqualified, it is because you are using the jargon of the far left […] You tell them they’re stupid. »
The debate then moved on to migratory issues: Pécresse for “immigration quotas” and firm measures on allowances; Maréchal sticks to his position of “zero immigration”. The two adversaries, in the hubbub of small sentences, leave each other in total incomprehension. The great union of the right is, decidedly, still not for tomorrow.