I am not looking for a consolation prize: Marine Le Pen rules out Matignon in the event of being unable to run for president.

The leader of the RN deputies, facing a sentence of ineligibility, will find out on July 7 if the justice system allows her to run in the next presidential election. In the meantime, she rules out the possibility of becoming Jordan Bardella’s Prime Minister in the event of the party’s victory.

The leader of the National Rally Marine Le Pen is not aiming for Matignon, in case it’s impossible for her to run in the presidential election because she is not “looking for a consolation prize,” she declared in an interview with Le Parisien published on Tuesday, March 31. “It is agreed between Jordan (Bardella) and me that, if justice does not prevent me, I will be a candidate in the presidential election and he will be my Prime Minister,” she reaffirmed, dismissing the latest polls that give higher scores to the young RN president.

“Personally, I see very few differences in these polls. The essential thing is that the RN candidate, whoever it may be, remains extremely high in the first round. And there is currently little risk of absence in the second round,” she estimated. Two recent surveys, conducted by the Elabe and Odoxa institutes, show the RN candidate leading by a wide margin in the first round, but at risk of being beaten in the second round by former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

The leader of the RN deputies will find out on July 7 if the justice system allows her to run in the next presidential election, scheduled for April or May 2027. She is currently facing a sentence of ineligibility following a first instance judgment in the case of the European parliamentary assistants of the National Front. Marine Le Pen also downplayed the differences that may have appeared between her and Jordan Bardella, with the latter seeming more inclined to consider alliances with right-wing parties. “If we project into the scenario where I could be a presidential candidate and he could be Prime Minister, he is perfectly fulfilling his role by seeking to broaden a majority for which, by definition, he would have responsibility,” she asserted.