Le Pen Leads Polls as RN Struggles to Reassert Control

Overview

• Marine Le Pen remains the clear polling favorite for the 2027 presidential race, with recent surveys placing her well ahead of rivals.
• This week the RN was unsettled by a series of controversial proposals from party figures, including calls to ban the veil and suggestions to cut aid to Ukraine, which opponents and some allies said raised legal and political problems.
• A video published by regional press showed a Carcassonne municipal police brigadier making racist and misogynistic remarks, prompting suspensions and the RN’s formal exclusion of the militant from its service d’ordre.
• The campaign has also seen personnel changes and tensions inside the Le Pen–Bardella leadership, including the departure of economic adviser François Durvye, leading the party to convene a parliamentary meeting at Le Touquet and a speech in Hénin-Beaumont this weekend to project unity.
• The episodes underline the fragility of the RN’s long-running ‘dédiabolisation’ effort, hand opponents issues to exploit and raise the immediate challenge of proving the party can govern with discipline and constitutional realism.