They met on Friday September 10 at the Novotel Atria in Nîmes with small eyes. The deputies of the Republicans (LR) party, gathered in Occitania for their parliamentary days, the day before, danced until one in the morning. Before, they had dined around the right-wing contenders for the presidential election who had come to try to win their membership.
Around the table, Xavier Bertrand, the president of Hauts-de-France, Valérie Pécresse, the patron saint of the Ile-de-France region, the former European commissioner Michel Barnier, the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes Eric Ciotti, the Mayor of La Garenne-Colombes Philippe Juvin. In addition to the candidates, were present, the president of the senate Gérard Larcher, Christian Jacob, at the head of the party, the deputy of Ain and leader of the elected LR in the National Assembly Damien Abad, but also Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, ex-president who ended up giving up. No deal came out of the evening that everyone called “Friendly”. But the event allowed the right to show a semblance of unity in a complicated context where it has not yet chosen the mode of designation of its candidate for 2022.
Above all, the dinner allowed Xavier Bertrand, whom many criticize for wanting to go it alone by refusing to bow to an internal race, to show that he is still close to his former political family. But, if he has been proclaiming for months that he wants to go for the presidential election without complying with the discipline of the party, he knows that he will have to rely on LR, his infrastructure, his militants but also his money. He will also have to prevent the party he left in 2017 from appointing another official candidate. A few days before a crucial decision on the method of appointing the right-wing candidate, Xavier Bertrand had to ” give a hand “.
To forget the image of “divider”
Friday morning, he in turn had to comply with the exercise of the great oral in front of the deputies, after Michel Barnier, Valérie Pécresse, Philippe Juvin and Eric Ciotti the day before. Standing in a tie, the former Minister of Labor who knew he was expected at the turn, engaged for an hour in a seduction operation. “This morning I came to tell you how we are going to win. Victory is no longer just possible, it is probable ”, he said in the preamble. And to add: “In 2022, we can win, only with unity and respect. unity between us, respect between us. “
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