This strand of the Right also takes a fundamentally neoliberal line on economics. As Maréchal described it, it is “antiwoke, anti-welfare and anti-tax racketeering”, and believes that French public policy and accounting has been corrupted by “mental socialism”. This is not so different from the line the RN has chosen in its bid to normalise, but the party still retains a commitment to abandon Macron’s austerian unemployment insurance reform. With this new political vehicle, Maréchal can give more prominence to positions which are to the Right of the Le Pen line and differ from the RN’s secular nationalist conception of French Republicanism, while remaining inside the tent.

These are the ideological motivations behind the party, reconstituting the Zemmourist line within the RN, which Maréchal has justified by claiming she has not changed and that she has always preferred to work with whoever has offered unity on the Right.

But a certain cynicism is also evident in her move. Maréchal insists that Le Pen has to remain the candidate for 2027. Though it’s unlikely that she poses a threat to her aunt’s candidacy, Maréchal is evidently planning for a post-Marine future.

Maréchal was for a time considered the natural successor to Le Pen and future inheritor of the RN. Since her departure that role has fallen to Bardella, and there is reportedly animosity between the pair. In May, Maréchal accused the RN President of lying to the French people about his promises that the results of the EU elections would change the country for the better. Not long afterwards, Bardella intervened in an attempt to prevent Maréchal’s return to the RN, saying he did not believe in it and that “she had made her choice”.

In launching a new movement which operates semi-autonomously from the RN, Maréchal is attempting to build a power base within the party — and the broader Right-wing alliance that IDL aims to consolidate — in order to snatch back her inheritance from Bardella. While killing the queen looks unlikely, perhaps fratricide is within Maréchal’s capabilities. Her political brother will be looking nervously over his shoulder if IDL finds success.