Yohan Engel, propelled at 26 years old party communication director, hitherto occupied social networks within the Les Républicains group in the National Assembly.
By Alexandre Pedro and Clément Guillou
This applies to elected officials as well as for the frameworks of political parties: on the right, the most effective social elevator consists in deporting to the far right. This is what Yohan Engel has just done, suddenly from social media manager for the Les Républicains group (LR) to the National Assembly at Director of Communication at the National Rally (RN). The information, revealed by the Sunday Journal, was confirmed by the party of Jordan Bardella, according to which Mr. Engel will direct the communication strategy of the RN – “leaflets, posters, social networks …”.
On the side of the Republicans, it is explained that the start does not constitute an irreplaceable loss of skills: entered as an intern in the service of Damien Abad, president of the group in the previous legislature, the 26 -year -old had been set off but recently invited to look for work elsewhere.
LR activist in the Yvelines, municipal councilor of the right-wing majority in Maurepas (2014-2020), he took care of the social networks of the agglomeration community of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and, briefly, of Rachida Dati and the Departmental Council of Yvelines. Before making a first visit to the National Assembly, then an aborted experience in the office of the president of the European Metropolis of Lille, Damien Castelain. He returned to the Palais-Bourbon in the luggage of Damien Abad, in March 2022.
Difficulties of RN staff
Recruitment to a strategic position of this unforgettable profile attests to the difficulties of RN personnel, which feeds victory ambitions in 2027 but still lacks experience and financial means.
Jordan Bardella’s party can however see the confirmation of the porosity, at the lower level, between the LR right and the RN, already noted in the recruitment of employees. Several parliamentary attachés having worked in the service of right -wing deputies or the center have joined RN elected officials since the summer. It is also through Albane Ductor, deputy secretary general of the RN group, former parliamentary attaché and LR candidate in the municipal elections, that Mr. Engel was recruited.
Thus rub shoulders with the group of attachés from the republican right and identity activists, such as Nina Smarandi, whose sulphurous profile was Revealed Thursday, January 12 A>. Parliamentary attaché of the deputy RN of Vaucluse, Joris Hébrard, the young woman poses in front of a Celtic cross flag, neofascist symbol, performs the rallying gestures of white supremacists or lunch with the negationist Hervé Ryssen. Her private Instagram account, on which she does not hide anything from her neofascist friendships, is followed by Jordan Bardella and number of elected lepenists. Friday, Joris Hébrard was not reachable and Renaud Labaye, secretary general of the group, said he was unable to intervene in the contract between the deputy and his collaborator.