Marine Le Pen’s new poster, or the pretenses of far-right com

The candidate of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, unveiled Tuesday her new poster for the second round of the presidential election and her new slogan, “For all French people”. A new stage in the communication of Marine Le Pen, cared for down to the smallest detail to continue to demonize her party, without denying anything to her speech. Without the name of the father, nor that of the party. Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the National Rally, unveiled, Tuesday, April 12, her campaign poster for the second round of the presidential election of 2022. She presents herself there all smiles, standing in front of an office table, in a very bare. The president of the far-right movement took the opportunity to concoct a new slogan – “For all French people” – which replaces the “Statewoman” of the first round. A Marine Le Pen more “modest” than in 2017To At first sight, it is a poster “fairly classic and specific to second-round candidates who ‘departisanise’ their message to bring people together beyond their political family”, sums up Marion Ballet, specialist in political discourse at the Center for Cultural History of contemporary societies of the University of Paris-Saclay, contacted by France 24. Poster of the first round (on the left) and poster of the second round (on the right) of Marine Le Pen, who had called on Sunday evening “all those who have not not voted Emmanuel Macron” to vote for her on April 24. #Présidentielle2022 pic.twitter.com/vP9vWap6xk— Nicolas Berrod (@nicolasberrod) April 12, 2022 The disappearance of the reference to the party is not specific to the National Rally. Emmanuel Macron does not allude to LREM on his poster either, and more generally, “it is a response from some of the candidates to the growing mistrust of the French towards the party apparatus”, specifies this political scientist. As for “forgetting” the surname – and even the first name – it is a strategy assumed by Marine Le Pen since she took the reins of the party and began her effort to standardize. “This allows you to detach yourself from the sectarian, virilist image still conveyed by the name Le Pen”, assures Marion Ballet.>> To read on France 24: Presidential: scattered and uncertain voice reports for the second round is not a simple poster of the second round. It also says a lot about the way Marine Le Pen ran her campaign and her quest for political respectability. And recalls that despite efforts to smooth the image, “the substance of the speech, as sweet as it may seem, remains xenophobic,” says Stéphane Wahnich, political scientist at Tel Aviv University and author of “Marine Le Pen taken at face value: decryption of the new frontist discourse”, contacted by France 24.Impossible, first of all, to escape the comparison with the poster of his first face-to-face with Emmanuel Macron, during the second round in 2017. “Both are very institutional, with the desk and the mouldings, but this time, she did not want to go directly to the Élysée, as in 2017 when we could make out a library in the background which made one think to that of the presidential palace”, analyzes Stéphane Wahnich. The poster for Marine Le Pen’s second round in 2017 Thomas Samson, AFP In other words, at the time the candidate wanted to make it clear that she already saw herself comfortably installed under the golds of the Republic when this time “she seeks to give a more modest image of itself”, continues the researcher. This modesty is also reflected in the posture adopted. In 2017, the poster for the second round showed her sitting nonchalantly on this desk supposed to represent that of the Élysée, while her skirt went up above her knee which “was a rather provocative posture to show a candidate who assumed her femininity”, recalls Jean-Philippe De Oliveira, specialist in political communication at the University of Grenoble Alpes, contacted by France 24. Cats and a big smile Nothing like this this time: Marine Le Pen is standing, without fuss, and in all sobriety. This staging “simpler and without provocation allows her to embody above all the function by suggesting that she understood what it meant to run for the presidency of the Republic”, explains Jean-Philippe De Oliveira. And what that therefore implies not doing… This modesty and simplicity thus allow the far-right candidate to suggest that she will not fly in the feathers of Emmanuel Macron as during her highly criticized performance during the debate between two towers in 2017. This refusal of any displayed aggressiveness will nestle down to the smallest details, such as the spelling. “She chose to use round, relatively thin letters for her slogan, which gives this impression of non-aggressiveness”, underlines Stéphane Wahnich. And above all, there is the smile. “She smiles frankly, not like on the 2017 poster. It’s a way of saying that the message is her first and foremost. Because Marine Le Pen thinks she has succeeded in forging a positive image with the public. French and that we must capitalize on this to arouse a surge of sympathy beyond his party,” said Christian Delporte, specialist in the history of political communication at the Center for Cultural History of Contemporary Societies at the University. Paris-Saclay, contacted by France 24. This representation of a smiling, “simple and modest” woman on the poster fits well with its communication since the start of the campaign. Between the “starification” of her cats, the presentation of Ingrid, “her roommate”, “there was a kind of depoliticization of her message in favor of an effort to portray her as someone normal”, analyzes Marion Ballet. Marine Le Pen, the “next door” candidate? There is enough to ruffle the hair of the old folks of the French extreme right. “It’s an obvious break with the traditional communication of this movement, which is based on the image of a strong leader behind whom the people can rally”, confirms Stéphane Wahnich. A slogan with two reading levels But this is nothing new for Marine Le Pen. She has been working to make the image of the FN (then the Rassemblement national from 2018) more accessible since taking power in 2011. “This poster represents the ultimate result of the party’s demonization strategy. We are the opposite of what Jean-Marie Le Pen was doing on his famous posters ‘Le Pen, Le Peuple’ [utilisées pendant dix ans, de la fin des années 1980 à la fin des années 1990, NDLR]. There is no longer any reference to the people and therefore to populism”, notes Stéphane Wahnich. It would, however, be wrong to think that the message of the party in the Marine Le Pen era has changed in depth. The hints of exclusion or xenophobia are also reflected in the poster through the slogan, which has two levels of reading: “For all French people” represents, first of all, “the most neutral message possible. All the new presidents affirm that they will represent ‘all the French people’. So, in a sense, it’s a formula that allows everyone, and in particular Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s voters, to find their way around,” said Jean-Philippe de Oliveira. But it’s also a reminder of the slogan of Emmanuel Macron – “We all” – adding the qualifier “French”, heavy with meaning. “She managed to use a non-inclusive ‘all’, since she excludes those she considers not to be to be French”, concludes Stéphane Wahnich. It is therefore always this same discourse that hides behind this big smile of poster (ag) e.