” Sorry, can we cut this part? I really didn’t understand the question. “In legislative elections, it is not uncommon to see young and inexperienced candidates in anguish on television, particularly France 3. Like Mélanie Fortier, 24, a candidate for the National Grouping in Côte-d’Or, on 8 May on the third channel Asked about public services, the young woman, who was making her first appearance on television, did not know how to answer the journalist’s question. A sequence that was later widely mocked on social media.
🗳🇫🇷 LEGISLATIVE 2022 – Start of Mélanie Fortier’s (very) complicated campaign, invested by the RN in the 2nd Côte-d’Or circus. Asked about her program in terms of public services, the candidate offered herself a beautiful moment of solitude (FR3). pic.twitter.com/Q3YdhsFpi6
— 🌐The Globe (@TheGlobe_info) May 9, 2022
Misfires, RN candidates are several to have noticed. The candidate for the 2nd constituency of the Territory of Belfort, Sophie Carnicer, on May 18, still on France 3, confessed not having prepared “Her arrival. She was also making her first televised intervention. Also on May 18 and again on the 3rd, Gérard Vollory, sworn in in the 3rd arrondissement of the Rhône, shows a photo of his black wife to show that he is not racist .
But the RN is not the only one to see its investments falter. On the same channel, Mélody Morille, 20 years old and candidate for Nupes in the 2nd constituency of Cantal, launched “ I am not an economist », punctuated by a « Oh shit “, during a debate broadcast by France 3 on May 26.
Local supervision at the National Meeting
contacted by MarianneGérard Vollory, from the RN, says that he regrets his gesture and argues that it was his. first television “: ” Brand. After the streak, I reached out to my campaign manager. We thought that next time we would play the debate in advance. He in the role of journalist and I in the role of candidate, of course. “Said this” active retiree who took a job as a rental car return agent to ” butter the spinach, invite [s] a woman in the restaurant and occasionally kicking a golf ball “.
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Because, despite his few past experiences – he was head of the cantonal list in 2011 under the UMP label and supported Éric Ciotti, then Éric Zemmour for the presidency in 2022 – Gérard Vollory is not a professional politician: ” You have to have media training. the media training it’s a job. In the face of political beasts, we are devoured. They have the replica, they have studied politics. I only did one semester of political science in college. »
In the National Rally, the training of its candidates is above all a matter of local work. Michèle Morel, departmental delegate of the party in the Rhône, details Marianne to them ” meetings of media training with the candidates to teach them how to present themselves, to develop a project, to anticipate the questions that the journalists could ask “: ” I tell them to work on knowing their constituency and how to present their arguments. Then we make a balance of the organization, how to be present in a market, how to meet the inhabitants “explains the chosen one.
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All this punctuated by videoconferences every week with party authorities, where the 569 candidates presented by the RN are guided on the administrative organization and the opening of campaign accounts, or even on the program to defend. ” they have been going for a yearfurther specifies Michèle Morel. This is very important, even for those who are not newbies. The rules change in five years, that’s a welcome update. “Each candidate can also count on campaign kits sold by the party to those sworn in, including, among other things, posters and documentation, professions of faith sent to the homes of citizens who are financially dependent on the RN.
Vulcan, the platform ad hoc of the Reconquest!
On the side of Reconquête!, the young formation oferic zemour, the training of candidates is much more centralized. In a party without local roots and of recent existence, those invested are, in part, unaware of the political backwater. To guide them in their campaign, the party authorities have developed, through the intermediary of the head of digital strategy Samuel Lafont and one of his relatives, Stanislas Gobert, a platform called Vulcain, an explicit reference to the Roman god fire and blacksmithing.
” It allows us to remotely manage the 550 candidatesSamuel Lafont explains to Marianne. There are videos dedicated to training, how to write a good email, documentation. The candidate also saves time at the national level: their contact details are filled in, which automatically fills in the documents that must be submitted to be a candidate. You can create a site in three clicks. Vulcain can also automatically generate a logo, ballots, posters, brochures… It saves us a lot of time. »
The program, ” first of its kind in France “, insists Samuel Lafont, it is also a way of managing the donations made to the candidates. Finally, the Épervier algorithm, developed during the presidential campaign, has been integrated into Vulcain to indicate to candidates the best geographical areas to tow. Everything is accessible to all candidates, although some may choose to pay between €1,000 and €4,000 for additional, personalized documentation.
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Yes Reconquer! favors everything digital, however a face-to-face training session was organized on May 7 at the Wagram room in Paris. A session in which there were successive interventions by party officials regarding the general organization of a campaign, the tow schedule, account management and even the use of social networks. Inverted having been able to count, upstream, on a thirty-page candidate’s guide addressed at the beginning of May.
Nevertheless, ” no media training session during training dayspecifies the one who was the architect of Éric Zemmour’s digital campaign during the presidential election. On the other hand, advice has been given and many candidates ask us questions, write us or call us for advice before media appearances. They are answered as quickly as possible and the national team is permanently present to support the candidates. Whether this long-distance strategy will be enough to avoid a televised quagmire remains to be seen: “ is the law of numbersgrants Samuel Lafont. With 550 candidates, anything can happen. »
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