Four months after a heavy electoral defeat, France’s National Front is on the verge of a split between its leader and her chief deputy that could open the way to a policy change on the euro as the far-right party seeks to rebrand itself, reports Reuters.
Marine Le Pen’s relationship with Florian Philippot, for years her closest aide, has become so strained since she lost the presidential election to centrist Emmanuel Macron that far-right experts say it has reached the point of no-return.
A rupture would mark an important change for the FN and Le Pen because she has for years defended Philippot’s anti-euro, protectionist line against critics in the party, and built her 2012 and 2017 presidential campaigns on his advice.
Philippot has been under fire in the party over its setbacks in this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections, with many blaming the anti-euro line he has backed so strongly.
Le Pen, whose leadership is also under scrutiny, has increasingly distanced herself from Philippot, focusing on the party’s anti-immigration, identitarian roots in speeches rather than the party’s stance on the euro.
Philippot has stood firm, maintaining that opposing the euro is a vote winner.
Le Pen has now issued him an ultimatum, saying he must decide between his party role and a think-tank group known as the Patriots that he has set up focused on an anti-euro policy.
“I don’t intend to abandon the Patriots nor my convictions nor my ideals,” a visibly shaken Philippot said in an interview on CNews.
“If they want to get rid of me and prevent me from working on the relaunch of the National Front, then let it be done,” he added.
Minutes later Le Pen issued a terse statement saying she had decide to revoke his responsibilities for strategy and communications, but stopped short of firing him as vice president - for now.
Jerome Fourquet, a specialist on the far-right at pollster Ifop, sees the split as definitive.
“This seems to have escalated to a point of no-return,” he said.