Less than a week after the failure of its plan to take power through legislative elections, the first heads are dropping at the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party. Officially, the party promised a simple “examination of conscience” after a legislative campaign marred by dozens of xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic candidates, not to mention those who shunned the media and debates for fear of contradiction. The party denies there has been any “purge” and has postponed the reshaping of its leadership structure until September.
Away from the microphones, the first “black sheep” – the term used by the party president Jordan Bardella for his problematic representatives – have already been excluded. Defeated on July 7 in the 2nd constituency of Aveyron in southern France, Marie-Christine Parolin left the ranks of the RN on the Occitanie regional council a few days later, where she now sits among the non-attached members. “She has left the group and will be summoned to appear before the conflicts committee,” the party told Le Monde.
In a debate organized by local radio station CFM in May, which resurfaced during the parliamentary elections, Marie-Christine Parolin responded in the affirmative to an opponent accusing her of wanting to replace the Republican motto (“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”) with that of the Vichy regime (“Work, Family, Fatherland”).
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