The right-wing populist candidate Marine Le Pen has been hit hard in the campaign for the French presidential election. Her niece, the popular Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, has announced that she is not joining her aunt, but the radical right-wing candidate Éric Zemmour.
The decision of 32-year-old Maréchal is not unexpected. She held key positions in her aunt’s party for many years, but had not been active there for some time. Recently, Zemmour has made more than once advances towards the ambitious Maréchal. “If Marion joins me, campaigns with me, she could become prime minister,” he said in an interview.
Maréchal now says she will support the candidate she believes is best positioned and whose ideas she has always supported. It was presented today at a Zemmour campaign rally in Toulon.
Islam and extremism
Maréchal is not the first prominent figure of Le Pens Rassemblement National leaving the party for that of Zemmour. Many of them think that Le Pen has become too soft: for example, she would not focus enough on Islam and extremism.
According to observers, the struggle between the right-wing parties is grist to the mill of incumbent President Macron. He remains a top favorite in polls to win the first round of the presidential election on April 10. In the most recent poll of Ipsos it stands at 30.5 percent. Le Pen is second with 14.5 percent and Zemmour third with 13 percent.
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