When Marion Maréchal sharply reframes Mathilde Panot on her name change: Do you think I’m ashamed?

Marion Maréchal and Mathilde Panot: Lively exchange around the use of a name

During a lively discussion on the set of the television show “It’s not every day Sunday”, on the BFMTV channel, Marion Maréchal, figure of the Reconquest movement on the European scene, strongly questioned her opponent Mathilde Panot on the subject of the name used to name it. The incident occurred while the two women were exchanging their points of view on major current issues such as immigration, the standard of living of citizens and the question of the influence of the extreme right in the country. .
The France Insoumise MP continued to refer to her political opponent by the outdated name of “Marion Maréchal-Le Pen”, the surname by which she was known between 2010 and 2018, and Marion Maréchal took this as a deliberate attempt to destabilize. “Do you think I deny my origins? You seem to insist excessively on naming me Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, as if that could embarrass me,” she asked, confronting her political rival with her intentions.

The debate continues on the question of the name

The representative of La France Insoumise quickly responded by pointing out that the full name was present on the official civil status documents. To which Marion Maréchal replied, clarifying that her official civil designation was none other than Marion Maréchal.

Why did Marion Maréchal abandon the surname “Le Pen”?

In 2017, the former MP explained that she had chosen to remove the name “Le Pen” from her title to symbolically mark her return to civilian life, during an interview with Télé Lyon Métropole, which was then further explored with from CheckNews. “My baptismal name is Maréchal. When I came of age, I entered Maréchal-Le Pen as my usual name on my passport for personal reasons. I used this name during the 2012 legislative campaign and it stuck imposed as my political name When I left politics, I decided to return to my civilian name to give more weight to this change,” she said.
This debate around the use of names led to a rhetorical clash between the two politicians, showing how words and names can be loaded with meanings and implications in the political arena.