In an interview for L'Opinion, Cécile Alduy explains what the latest family feud in the Le Pen family is really about.
Jean-Marie Le Pen's latest statements in favor of the Vichy régime and the defense of the "White World" in the far right weekly Rivarol forced Marine Le Pen to quench the polemic and take a stance against him publicly. But no ideological clarification has been made so far: while she condemned her father's abuse of "his freedom of speech" against the party line and denounced a "scortched earth strategy", she did not pinpoint on exactly what item she disagrees with him. By appearing firm on principles while never really defining said principles or what she condemns, she is pursuing her "dédiabolisation" strategy and gets to gain symbolically and politically from her opposition to her father, without incurring the political cost of denouncing his stances on immigrants "ruling France." A clever media tactic that surfs on the surface of the storm, without cutting herself from her base.
Read the full interview here: