Almost a year after leaving the FN, Florian Philippot failed his bet

Last September, Florian Philippot formalized his break with Marine Le Pen and left the National Front, which has since become National Rally. It refuses to join another party, like Upright France for example, and created its own movement, the Patriots, and considers like an alternative to FN. Nearly a year later, he still seems to be failing politically. Worse, one of the pillars of his movement, the MEP Sophie Montel, filed a complaint against him after having recorded his break with his party. He is now fighting to keep his seat in the European Parliament.

Read also – Florian Philippot, from the bubble to the crash

Sophie Montel started a legal battle against him

Sophie Montel was one of the few supporters Florian Philippot, when he left the FN with a crash. But at the beginning of July, the MEP withdrew from the Patriotes and announced that she wanted to sue the president of the movement. Sophie Montel claims to have accidentally discovered the existence of a delegation of power, dated 3 October 2017 and signed by herself, Florian Philippot, and the third MEP Les Patriotes, Mireille d'Ornano, for the benefit of the only Florian Philippot in particular regarding the sums allocated to each MEP for his communication expenses (80,000 euros per year). However, Sophie Montel claims to have "never signed this document."

On Wednesday, she filed a complaint against Florian Philippot for "uses of forgery" and against X for "forgery and forgery and misappropriation of public funds" . His lawyer, Mr Randall Schwerdorffer, sent this complaint Wednesday morning to the National Finance Prosecutor and the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf). "Sophie Montel plays the white knight but be careful …" reacted Florian Philippot on July 12 with Obs before estimating that the accusations against him are "directly related" to the resentment of his former ally for not appearing in the second place of the list Patriots for the next European elections.

He has not yet managed to impose his party in the political landscape

At the time of his rupture, Sophie Montel also denounced the "divine solitude" of the president of the Patriots. "After leaving the National Front, whose dysfunctional aspect appears every day a little more, I refuse to condone the same drifts in my new formation," she added in a statement.

The situation is paradoxical: Florian Philippot is often invited in the morning and has a sound box: a Twitter account of more than 179,000 subscribers. In addition, he clarified his political position and found a niche, located between the National Rally of Marine Le Pen and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan's Debout la France. It defends a real Frexit (an exit from France from the euro zone and the European Union) and actively participated in the mobilizations against the reforms of the Labor Code or the SNCF. Only one François Asselineau is on the same political line but this former presidential candidate of 2017 does not have the same media aura.

But that does not take. As proof, Sophie Montel's bitter electoral defeat during a by-election in the Territoire de Belfort, a department in which Les Patriotes are supposed to be well established. The MEP met only 2% of the vote in the first round, behind the 7.5% FN candidate Jean-Raphaël Sandri.

The very risky bet of the European election

Consequence of this isolation, The Patriotes, an badociation that became a political party in September 2017, survives. As observed Le Figaro at the end of May, Florian Philippot struggles to find the sum of one million euros to finance his next campaign of the European election, despite the 7,000 members claimed by Training. Thursday in The World it evokes the figure of 500.000 euros, sum which it has not yet managed to reunite.

Nevertheless, this poll will be crucial for the politician who made Frexit his flagship proposal. In September, he will publish a book on this theme, Frexit, come out to get out . "It's very simple: either it pbades or it breaks, explained in Le Figaro Maxime Thiebaut, co-founder of the party.If we manage to re-elect Florian Philippot, the bet will be partly won. is not the case, let's be honest, it will be very complicated. " However, the European election is a single election, nationwide, with national lists. This will weaken small parties, especially those like Les Patriotes, which are better established in a given region – the Great East in this case.

A recent Ifop poll for Current values ​​ places the movement of Florian Philippot at 1% of voting intentions. Far from 5% to get even one seat in the European Parliament.