Nicolas Bay
Nicolas Bay (born 21 December 1977) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from France. He served as General Secretary of the National Front from 2014 to 2017. He has served as a Regional Councillor for Normandy since January 2016, having previously served as a Municipal Councillor for Elbeuf from 2014 to 2015. Life and career. Bay was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Yvelines. He joined the National Front at 15, in 1992. He soon became the leader of the National Front's youth wing (FNJ) in the Yvelines and Ile-de-France  region. In 1998, along with Guillaume Peltier, he founded the Youth Christian Action Association (AJAC), a movement which opposed the PACS and euthanasia. It claimed around 250 members and was close to the National Republican Movement (MNR), led by Bruno Mégret. In 1998, during the FN split, he joined Bruno Mégret's National Republican Movement, first as deputy national director of the National Movement of Youth (youth branch of the MNR) and later as responsible for elections within the party. He was one of the two MNR municipal councillors elected in Sartrouville (Yvelines) in the 2001 French municipal elections when  his list won 11.3% of the votes. He was candidate in the Yvelines' 5th constituency in the 2002 elections. In the 2004 regional election he was the MNR's top candidate in Île-de-France, winning 1.18% of the vote. As the MNR's top candidate in the Île-de-France European constituency in the 2004 European election, he won only 0.28% of the vote. He retained his seat in the Sartrouville municipal council in the 2008 local elections, but his list won only 5.2% of the vote. As a result, he is the MNR's only local councillor in  French municipalities with more than 3,000 inhabitants. Upon Mégret's resignation from the leadership of the MNR in May 2008, Bay and his allies won leadership of the party. However, due to his increasing contacts with the FN and Marine Le Pen in particular, the party council decided to remove him from the party in September 2008. Although he is not a member of the FN, instead head of a political club ('National Convergences'), he was on the FN's list (led by Marine Le Pen) in the North-West constituency in the 2009 European election. Despite protests from within  the party, he was selected to be National Front's candidate in Upper Normandy for the 2010 regional elections. As a member of the eurosceptic National Rally, he firmly defended the United Kingdom's Brexit decision. Personal life. He was a boy scout in the Scouts Unitaires de France. He is a self-declared Roman Catholic, and he participated in the protests against same-sex marriage law in 2013. He married in 2008 and has 3 children. Suspension from National Rally. On 15 February 2022. French media reports that Bay was suspended from the National Rally due to his possible  support of Le Pen's challenger Éric Zemmour. He considers these accusations un-explained. The next day, he filed a complaint and lawsuit against the RN for defamation. On 16 February 2022, he announced his support for candidate Éric Zemmour for the presidential election and join Reconquête where he was named Vice-President.