Marine Le Pen closed a two-day National Rally congress in Orléans on Sunday by presenting her 2027 presidential bid as a project of national renewal. Addressing supporters in the city linked to Joan of Arc, she urged them to reject what she called resignation and defeatism, and said no defeat is final if a people refuses to accept it.
Le Pen, whose conviction for misappropriating European public funds was recently upheld on appeal, described the programme as a renaissance for France aimed at greater security, prosperity and creativity. She said the party’s only guiding principle was France, its recovery and the happiness of the French people, and promised to free minds from the idea that victory is impossible.
On how France is governed, she called for more referendums and for proportional representation with a bonus for the winning party, arguing that the party wants power in order to return it to the people. On immigration and public order she promised automatic and permanent deportation of foreign nationals who commit offences, and a ban on what she called communitarianism. She did not repeat an earlier pledge to cut the retirement age to 60; she said she would not raise it beyond 64 and wanted young people to enter the labour market earlier.
Turning to foreign policy, she pledged to make France a nation of peace and rejected wars that are not France’s, without naming the conflicts. She said French military strength should serve harmony between peoples. She restated the party’s principle of national priority and insisted the French Constitution must take precedence over outside authorities, including European ones. The report says that position points towards a confrontation with the European Union if she wins the presidency next year.
She also attacked what she called new forms of obscurantism, grouping Islamism, the far left and hostility to technological progress, which she linked to punitive environmentalism or political nihilism.
The speech ended the congress under heavy security. About a hundred anti-fascist demonstrators gathered early on Sunday outside an administrative detention centre roughly four kilometres from the Co’Met arena, beyond a wide perimeter where the prefecture had banned gatherings. Police reportedly used batons when some protesters briefly tried to block a road; the group later turned back under police escort. A demonstrator identified as Fleur, 29, said a fascist party should not be allowed to hold a conference as if it were an ordinary party. The protest followed a peaceful anti-RN march on Saturday that drew between 13,000 and 26,000 people by different estimates. About 3,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed in Orléans over the weekend.