France 5 airs a documentary this Tuesday shedding light on the victorious municipal campaign of the party in La Flèche, Sarthe.
From the mayor’s office of his town of 20,000 inhabitants in southern Sarthe, the socialist mayor is surprised on camera by the sudden rise of the National Rally in his commune: “We never saw them before, they were not visible. Recently, they go to the market, to ceremonies… silently. Quietly, they arrive, they show themselves.” Mayor Nadine Grelet-Certenais does not know it yet. But a few weeks later, following the second round of the municipal elections, her commune of La Flèche – left almost continuously since 1945 – will fall under the influence of the party of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella. A quake in this land of Pays de la Loire. Until now completely resistant to the rise of the party.
For over a year, directors Camille Girerd and Florent Maillet had the rich intuition to plant their cameras to document the lead-up to this patient nationalist conquest. A space-time ranging from the fall of the government of Michel Barnier to the first instance conviction of Marine Le Pen, passing through farmers’ protests. The result is a precious 50-minute documentary, broadcast this Tuesday, April 14 at 9:05 pm on France 5.
“Winning in Sarthe means we are everywhere”
The documentary reveals the ingredients as well as the main springs of a political coup imagined at the top of the RN hierarchy. By Marie-Caroline Le Pen, Marine’s sister, and her husband, the MEP and special advisor to the triple presidential candidate, Philippe Olivier. A couple that set its sights on this territory of Sarthe shortly before the dissolution of June 2024. Following which Marie-Caroline Le Pen almost won in the second round of the legislative elections in the Sablé-sur-Sarthe constituency, by nearly 110 votes. A fixed idea in mind: “Winning in Sarthe means we are everywhere.” It is now a reality.
Without imposing a specific reading or dogmatic response, the documentary questions the transformation of a territory. It illustrates the attraction of the RN for young ambitious militants like the new mayor of La Flèche, Romain Lemoigne. Who, just a decade ago, would have mechanically joined the Republicans party. It shows the political translation of peasant anger, disillusioned with “Macronist promises” and rejected by inaudible solutions proposed by the traditional right, voting or even running under the RN label. Like the striking exhaustion, on market stalls and during municipal ceremonies, of the effects of the “demonization” of the RN, despite its legal troubles.
As it did in the 1980s in southeastern France, in Hauts-de-France and then in the East in the 2010s, or more recently in Occitanie and Gironde, the RN party intends to use the “oil spot” strategy from Sarthe to confirm and amplify its presence in Pays de la Loire. But the documentary also highlights what continues to be a significant hurdle to the territorial expansion of the RN in the West: “The RN has the voters. But not the candidates.” At least, until the next presidential election.
