Having lived for many years at the luxurious Domaine de Montretout, where doors were regularly slammed in anger, Marine Le Pen has acquired a certain tolerance toward her neighbors. For example, she takes no issue with the fact that her Rassemblement National (RN) shares a bench at the European Parliament with Vladimir Putin's remaining Central European allies, with nostalgic Third Reich supporters or with the continent's most xenophobic parties. Despite her strategy of normalization in French politics – abandoning both her outrageous rhetoric and her desire to seek a divorce from the European Union (EU) – for her nothing must stand in the way of the re-election of a large group to the European Parliament in the June 9, 2024 elections.
When asked by Le Monde about these troublesome allies, RN leader Le Pen dodged the question: "We're looking for allies, not clones. As long as one agrees on the condominium rules, everyone can do what they want in their own apartment: Eat as they please, choose their own curtains and put what they want up on the walls." On the subject of decoration, a Bavarian MP from the Alternativ für Deustchland (AfD) party – the RN's German ally – had displayed an SS order in his bedroom signed by Heinrich Himmler, one of the main organizers of the Holocaust. The police weren't too keen on the other writings in praise of Adolf Hitler, nor on the weapons found on the premises, and arrested the politician on October 30. He still has the support of the AfD, whose Bavarian section has been infiltrated by a neo-Nazi fraternity, according to the German press.
According to autumn opinion polls, the RN and AfD could become two of the largest delegations in the future European Parliament. The two parties are expected to jointly lead Identity and Democracy (ID), the current name for the European far-right parliamentary group that includes the RN. They and their allies could, according to a November 30 parliamentary projection by the organization Europe Elects, form the fourth-largest group – in the same league as the reactionary right-wing ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists), which includes Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia party and the Polish Law and Justice party. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz, on the other hand, remains unaffiliated.
Le Pen has given up on her ambition to unite a large group in rejecting immigration and the EU, while acknowledging national rivalries as well as differences of opinion on diplomatic, social and economic issues. Together with ECR, the far-right leader now hopes to constitute a blocking minority in the European Parliament, based on three key areas of opposition: to immigration, to the European Green Deal and to EU federalization.
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