National Rally (RN) brings together 10,000 militants in Orleans this weekend to celebrate its congress and launch its 2027 presidential campaign. The party has chosen the city of Joan of Arc for its symbolic significance for the French extreme right, being a symbol of patriotism and nationalism. Furthermore, the RN has consolidated its vote in this region. The congress will also serve to stage the continuity of the party's leadership in the face of the presidential elections.
This Saturday the results of the internal vote to elect the president of the party and the members of the National Council will be announced, although it is known in advance that the vote will give victory to Marine Le Pen and that Jordan Bardella will be re-elected as president of the party, since no other candidates have been presented. His candidacy was marred by the controversy unleashed a few weeks ago, when Mediapart brought to light some anti-Semitic comments by Bardella from his youth, in which he stated that all banks belonged to Jews. The president of the RN has denied the accusations and has had the support of his party at all times.
With the leadership of the party clear, all eyes will be on Marine Le Pen tomorrow, Sunday, who will give a large rally to officially launch her candidacy for the presidential elections in May next year. At the moment, the polls place Le Pen as the favorite in the elections, with 38% of the estimated vote, followed far behind, with 16%, by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of La Francia Insumisa.
But the congress is also marked by an episode of racist violence that occurred this Friday in Trappes, on the outskirts of Paris. A terrorist killed a young black man and injured five people with a machine gun. The murderer, 39 years old, also had other weapons and the book My Struggle, by Adolf Hitler, in his home. The attacker has declared that his objective was to kill "black and Arab" people to take revenge on French merchants who had suffered looting and destruction of their businesses. The main political parties, including the RN, have condemned the attack.
The terrorist act occurs on the eve of protests against the RN called in Orleans on the occasion of its congress. The mayor of Trappes, Ali Rabeh, has decided to join the demonstration against the RN for the racist attack that took place on Friday in his city. Likewise, the mayor of Saint-Denis, Bally Bagayoko, from France Insoumise (LFI), has also decided to participate in the protest. Two demonstrations against the RN have been organized on the same day of the congress, one of them by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) union, under the pretext that this party is "the worst enemy of the workers", according to Gérard Ré, regional secretary of the CGT.
One of the buses organized by an anti-fascist movement that intended to go to Orléans from Paris to demonstrate has been detained in a toll area for more than an hour, while identity checks were carried out on the bus passengers, so the protesters have not been able to participate in the protest.
The protests also bring together groups with very different demands, from young anti-fascists and students who defend public education to people who demand an improvement in living conditions due to the high cost of living or people who demonstrate against the current Government of Emmanuel Macron.
The call for protests has led the authorities to deploy an extensive police force. To avoid altercations between far-right and far-left groups, a large force with 3,000 law enforcement officers has been deployed. Despite the police deployment, in order to boycott the RN congress, which takes place at the Zénith-Co'Met, during the night the boycotters threw nails in the congress parking lot, so the wheels of some Police vehicles deployed in the area to protect the congress facilities have been punctured.
Tension is also felt among merchants. Many businesses in the center of Orleans have installed barricades on their doors or armored their establishments to prevent looting or damage to the windows and doors, as happened last week during the October 17 demonstration. Local authorities asked restaurants to clear their chairs and tables so they could not be thrown as projectiles by protesters over the weekend.
