Everything except Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Questioned this Tuesday, November 10 at the microphone of Sud radio, the mayor of Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) Marie-Hélène Thoraval did not hide her revulsion for the rebellious candidate. “I fear it for France and that’s what I don’t want,” insisted the mayor of the village where the murder of young Thomas took place in November 2023, for which the investigating magistrates retained the aggravating circumstance of racism against “the white race and the French nation”. A qualification which was the subject of an appeal by the Valencia public prosecutor's office.
“Today, the words of Jean-Luc Mélenchon come from someone who practically considers himself a monarch and who ultimately, in his words, in what he proposes for France, I would say that it is a real policy of dictatorship,” she said. In the event of a second round against Marine Le Pen? “I will never vote for Jean-Luc Mélenchon,” insisted Marie-Hélène Thoraval. “I will not vote blank. I think I will definitely vote for Marine Le Pen.”
Earlier in the interview, the mayor of Drôme had nevertheless underlined her disagreement with Marine Le Pen, who recently told the American media that France was the least racist country in the world. “I don’t know if we live in the same world every day,” says Marie-Hélène Thoraval. “(…) I still find that it is an element that is developing. (…) I am one of the first to also speak out on this form of anti-white racism, and I think that it reaches all levels.”
“There is no acceptable racism,” she added, emphasizing in passing that she recognized a “racist” attack in the Yvelines attack. “It is completely reprehensible in the same way as the other forms.” Furthermore, Marie-Hélène Thoraval does not support Marine Le Pen for the first round of the presidential election and hopes that the right will choose a single candidate before this deadline. “We are logically with so-called intelligent people, so I think they can sit around the table or they can continue to let the polls slide and then see who comes out within a month,” she believes. “I think that Gabriel Attal is still in trouble,” she added. “I think he should step down.”
A clear link between immigration and insecurity
In his eyes, Édouard Philippe is absolutely right to speak of an “over-representation of young French people with immigrant backgrounds” in the riots and looting of October 17. “Frankly, for me the words of Édouard Philippe, in fact what he said is what everyone saw,” reacted the mayor. “Where is the problem? We saw exactly the same thing. So of course his observation is an observation that has been shared by a number of French people.”
Marie-Hélène Thoraval also spoke on the sensitive issue of migration. “I think that today there is a problem linked to integration. (…) I don’t want to say that integration is a failure, it’s not a failure, it’s worse than that: it’s a failure. (…) So when you have failed integration, there is little chance that you will succeed in assimilation.”
The mayor of Romans-sur-Isère does not hesitate, moreover, to assume a link between immigration and insecurity. “So I see a very big link there because there is a notion of value. There is a notion of respect for the rules which absolutely does not occur, of adherence to the values of the Republic. So that’s complete nothingness, that is to say that today, we quite frankly have two Frances in one.”
