Beer-soaked
nationalist rally in rural France turns into Marine Le Pen love-fest
Europe’s
nationalist leaders offer Le Pen kind words and a ceremonial title as she
fights to stay center stage.
Organizers
said more than 6,000 people were in attendance, mostly supporters of Le Pen's
National Rally. |
June 9, 2025
6:57 pm CET
By Victor
Goury-Laffont
MORMANT-SUR-VERNISSON,
France — After a rough start to 2025, the adulation of a beer-chugging crowd
and the support of the European far right’s top brass might be just what the
doctor ordered for Marine Le Pen.
An all-star
lineup of European nationalists including Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s
Matteo Salvini, Czechia’s Andrej Babiš and Spain’s Santiago Abascal joined Le
Pen in the small village of Mormant-sur-Vernisson, population 133, to celebrate
one year since the parties that make up the Patriots for Europe group scored a
major win in the European election.
Organizers
said more than 6,000 people were in attendance, mostly supporters of Le Pen’s
National Rally from the local area, with some traveling from further afield.
Those who
spoke took turns at the podium relaying their traditional talking points on
everything from gender identity to clamping down on mass migration as the crowd
chowed down on Peruvian fusion empanadas and the Maghrebi sausage variety,
Merguez.
Everyone
brought the love for Le Pen, who is facing a possible ban on running for
president in 2027 after being found guilty of embezzlement in March. The
verdict was handed down just months after the death of her father and political
mentor, Jean-Marie.
“Each
passing day brings you closer to Marine Le Pen being president,” Abascal, the
leader of Spain’s Vox party, told the crowd in French. “They won’t be able to
stop her.”
The
strongest words of support for Le Pen came from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who
made the 1,200-kilometer trip to France to back his ally. Orbán lauded his
“long-time friend” as a “courageous fighter” who “doesn’t betray” and “doesn’t
let you down.”
“France must
be a very rich country if it can afford not to have Marine Le Pen as
president,” he said.
In turn, Le
Pen praised Orbán’s Hungary as “a model of historical resistance to oppression”
and “a leading nation in Europe,” endorsing its refusal to implement EU asylum
laws.
The final
speech of the day belonged to Le Pen’s 29-year-old protégé, Jordan Bardella,
who chairs the Patriots group in the European Parliament — and increasingly
looks like a threat to Le Pen’s grip on her party.
“We want to
govern in France and we are preparing for it everyday,” Bardella said. The
National Rally’s official plan — for now — is to have Bardella serve as prime
minister if Le Pen wins the presidency.
Le Pen will
leave the sun-scorched cereal fields of Mormant-sur-Vernisson with a new title
unanimously bestowed upon her by her peers: honorary president of the Patriots.
The gesture
is largely symbolic. On the one hand it reaffirms her primacy over France’s far
right in the eyes of her international counterparts.
But such
laurels often come closer to the eulogy of a career than they do the apex of
one.
CORRECTION:
This article has been updated to correct Santiago Abascal’s role in Spain’s Vox
party.
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