A last interview before the decisive congress of September 25. A final debate before handing over the choice of the method of designation of the right-wing presidential candidate to the members of the Les Républicains (LR) party. Because there is no shortage of suitors. How to decide between the president of Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand, the patron saint of Ile-de-France, Valérie Pécresse, the former European commissioner Michel Barnier, but also the mayor of Garenne-Colombes (Hauts-de-France -Seine), Philippe Juvin, and the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes Eric Ciotti?
On Wednesday September 22, LR executives met in the political office at the rue de Vaugirard headquarters to endorse the decisions taken two weeks before by the strategic committee. The aim was to set in stone the questions that will be asked to the activists on Saturday. They will have to decide between two alternatives. The establishment of a primary, according to methods on which the mayor of Antibes, Jean Léonetti worked, or a vote by the congress like what happened in 2007 for Nicolas Sarkozy.
This second possibility is favored by management, but also by Xavier Bertrand. The president of Hauts-de-France hinted at the parliamentary days of LR, in Nîmes, at the beginning of September, that he could submit to this modality. It remained, before Wednesday, to determine whether this congress would be open to members of “Friends parties” like the centrists or the UDI. A hypothesis strongly pushed by those close to Valérie Pécresse who want to open up the electorate as much as possible, even in the event of a vote by the militants. In the end, the opponents of this measure won: only LR members will vote in the event of a tie-breaker by the congress.
“Nobody imposes himself”
Wednesday’s meeting was also an opportunity to learn about the result of the first qualitative study commissioned by the party leadership from the IFOP polling institute. At the beginning of the summer, the boss of the party, Christian Jacob, had indeed announced the launch of this poll. “Cevipof way” on a sample of 15,000 LR sympathizers. The goal ? “To enlighten” the party’s choices on its candidate. When asked about their preferred method of designation, supporters overwhelmingly voted for the congress option (70%). A first potential image of what could be the choice of activists on Saturday, even if the latter do not necessarily have the same profile as the people polled by the FIFG.
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