Marion Maréchal, MEP and president of the Identité Libertés party (IdL), chose a powerfully symbolic setting for her spring rally: the village of Domrémy-la-Pucelle, the birthplace of Joan of Arc. In doing so, she sought to reclaim a conservative heritage that the Rassemblement National, her former political family, has neglected.
Maréchal gathered her supporters on May 1st. The date was no coincidence: since 1988, the Front National—the predecessor of the Rassemblement National— had held its annual parade on this day to celebrate the feast day of Joan of Arc, France’s secondary patron saint and an emblematic figure of the French national Right. The parade fell into disuse under Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella but is now being revived by the granddaughter of the founder of the Front National, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Maréchal visited Domrémy, the small village in Lorraine where Joan of Arc was born, for the first time during the European election campaign, when she was still the lead candidate for Éric Zemmour’s party, Reconquête, which she has since left. She promised then that she would return every year, and she has now done so, intending to make it a key event for her young political party, Identité Libertés. “The story of Joan of Arc is like a sublime comet in the sky of French history. She is a symbol of struggle and hope, things that I believe the French people need today,” she said as she laid a wreath of lilies at the foot of the statue of the saint and national heroine.
For the RN, little Jeanne of Lorraine is no longer riding high. “We have changed our historical reference point. It is now less Jeanne d’Arc than Richelieu or de Gaulle,” acknowledged Le Pen’s special adviser and Maréchal’s uncle, Philippe Olivier, on May 1st, 2023. But for Maréchal, Jeanne’s symbolism is more relevant than ever, including her extraordinary and feminist qualities: “a woman, a warrior, a commander of men,” Maréchal was keen to point out with a provocative smile.
The tribute to Joan is not insignificant and is part of a broader war of symbols that pits Identité Libertés against the RN. Marine Le Pen’s RN has been accused by a fringe of the conservative electorate of turning its back on its roots and values to become a soulless populist party—while some in the RN accuse Maréchal of indulging in nods to the ‘fundamentalist Catholic’ milieu, according to the centre-right weekly Le Point.
In the tense context of Marine Le Pen’s conviction in the European parliamentary assistants affair, this image war takes on particular significance, because if the historic leader were to withdraw from the presidential race, competition could arise between Bardella and Maréchal, both from the same political generation.
Bardella is meanwhile signalling his intention to send reassuring messages to Maréchal’s core voters, as evidenced by a video he posted in tribute to Joan of Arc: “The example of Joan of Arc shows us that the word ‘fatalism’ is not, and must never be, part of our vocabulary,” he explained as he prepared to rally his supporters in Narbonne, in the south, for a large meeting on May 1st in an atmosphere very different from that in Domrémy.
For now, however, Maréchal remains absolutely loyal to Marine Le Pen’s candidacy in her fight for justice—until further notice. “I support Marine Le Pen’s candidacy. This is not about questioning her succession today, but about how she will be able to stand as a candidate in 2027, and thus overturn this unjust decision by the judges, which deprives millions of French people of fair representation,” Maréchal told journalists who had come to hear her speak in Domrémy. That is the priority today. Tomorrow is another day.
