For the Republicans (LR) party, the question becomes almost existential: how to nominate the candidate of the political formation in the presidential election of 2022? Because there is no shortage of suitors. They are now five: Xavier Bertrand, president of the Hauts-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse at the head of Ile-de-France, Michel Barnier, former European commissioner and Brexit negotiator, Philippe Juvin, mayor de La Garenne-Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine), and Eric Ciotti, deputy for the Alpes-Maritimes.
It remains to determine a tie-breaker method. Most candidates accept the principle of the primary; Xavier Bertrand has always refused to do so. He is not the only one. Many at LR are still traumatized by the scenario of the 2016 primary, to which they blame the party’s failure in the 2017 presidential election.
To settle the question, the movement’s leadership decided to organize a congress on September 25 and let the members have the last word. The approximately 65,000 members of the party will vote, that day, virtually to choose a method of selecting the invested candidate. An obligatory passage. As Christian Jacob, president of LR, regularly reminds us, the primary is written into the statutes. To modify it, it is therefore necessary to go through a congress.
“We’re finally moving forward”
Meeting in a strategic committee on Tuesday, September 14, party officials agreed on the two options that will be offered to members at the end of September. The first would take up the main lines of 2016: the organization of a so-called semi-open primary. It would, in fact, be very accessible. To vote there, it would be necessary, specified Mr. Jacob on Tuesday on the sidelines of the management meeting, “Adhere to the values of the right and the center”. And the potential voter would have to pay 2.50 euros and be registered in a file “Which will subsequently be used by the party”. The goal ? Prevent voters from other political families from interfering with this internal race. The candidates will have to obtain the sponsorship of 250 elected representatives from 30 different departments.
The second option would be an internal vote reserved only for LR members to which would be added those of the UDI and the Centrists, the formation of the president of the Normandy region, Hervé Morin. It would be then “Up-to-date membership” who would vote for “Candidates who wish to benefit from the support of the party”. According to a management source, this second congress could be organized around December 4. “We are finally moving forward, by organizing ourselves so that LR is tomorrow at the heart of the new majority that France needs”, welcomed the deputy of Yonne Guillaume Larrivé, Tuesday morning.
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