FRENCH far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has likened a one-time close supporter to a “slug”, accusing him of sabotage as a series of defections rattle her party, with elections looming.

Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) announced today it had suspended former vice president Nicolas Bay, accusing him in a statement of “sabotage, duplicity and behaviour unworthy of the trust placed in him.”

Bay’s alleged crime was passing on confidential information about Le Pen’s campaign to her rival Eric Zemmour, with the incident serving to highlight the increasingly bitter split in the anti-immigration wing of French politics. 

Speaking during a campaign stop outside Paris today, Le Pen made a clear reference to Bay and other party figures who she suspects of delaying their departures to Zemmour’s team for maximum political effect. 

“I call that the strategy of the slug, not only because the slug is slow but because it’s also sticky,” she said. 

At the weekend, the RN’s only senator, Stephane Ravier, joined Zemmour, while European parliamentarian Gilbert Collard departed in mid-January.

Bay, an MEP and official RN spokesman, denied passing on any information to Zemmour, calling the allegation “outrageous” in a message on Twitter.

He is expected to formalise his decision to join Zemmour, an anti-Islam former TV pundit, in the coming days. 

“Shaking a tree so that the rotten fruit falls is always a good thing to do,” Le Pen’s spokesman Laurent Jacobelli said today in reference to the decision to suspend Bay from the party.

Polls currently put President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the pack of presidential candidates with the first round of voting on April 10. Le Pen, Zemmour and conservative candidate Valerie Pecresse compete for second spot. 

The top two candidates in the first round face off in an April 24 run-off vote, which Macron is also tipped to win. 

Le Pen currently has the edge over her closest rivals for second spot, polls suggest, but Zemmour has gained between one and two points in surveys published over the last three weeks.

Pecresse suffered a blow at the weekend when her first major rally was widely panned by critics, leading her to concede that she was “more at ease when speaking directly to the public” than from a podium. – AFP, February 16, 2022.