Marion Maréchal’s face appears on posters calling for “a future for white children”. The head of the Reconquest list in the European elections deplores “manipulation”.

“Let’s give white children a future,” we can read on posters plastered in French streets in recent weeks. Below this slogan, the image of a little blond boy with blue eyes. Visuals signed by the Party of France, a far-right movement close to Pétainism. Except that on neighboring posters signed by the same party, the face and name of Marion Maréchal appear. The head of the Reconquest list was forced to clarify things.

“A small group is engaging in gross manipulation,” denounced the candidate of Eric Zemmour’s party on Saturday May 11 on having given notice to the authors of the poster from April 17. She also publishes the letter she sent to the Party of France, in which she recalls that “no agreement of any kind” has been sealed between the latter and Reconquête for these European elections. She sees fit to clarify that “the expenses” incurred for this unexpected support campaign “cannot […] be deemed to be on my behalf”.

“You will note, when reading her letter, that what bothers her in this poster is that it will be attributed to her campaign account, not its racist character and inspired by Nazi slogans,” squeaks communist senator Ian Brossat on X .

The words displayed on these posters are reminiscent of a famous slogan by American white supremacist David Lane, commonly abbreviated ‘Fourteen words’: “We must preserve the existence of our people and the future of white children.” A maxim which is the subject of numerous derivative products (T-shirts, jewelry) in the United States in supremacist circles.

In their turn, supporters of the head of the Macronist list Valérie Hayer wasted no time in getting involved in the controversy: “You’re not dreaming, it’s a European campaign poster from Marion Marechal with a new slogan [ …] which is a shame for the values ​​of the republic”, we could read on May 11 on the X account “Europe with Valérie Hayer”. “Among the Le Pens, chase away the natural, it comes back at a gallop. Don’t give them a voice!” Adds the message, striking in passing the National Rally of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, the main opponent of the Macronists in these European elections.

For his part, the president of the Party of France, Thomas Joly, deplored a “very useless controversy”, assuring that it had “never been a question of manipulating anyone or anything” but only of showing support of his party to Marion Maréchal’s list, as he had done for the candidacy of Eric Zemmour in 2022. He still regretted seeing the candidate “dissociate herself from the only political party apart from Reconquête which” supports her and called on her not to let herself be “influenced by an entourage of lukewarm people or spineless courtiers who only seek to divide.”