The activists have finally spoken. On Saturday September 25, the Republicans (LR) party organized a decisive congress, capable of writing the history of the coming months of the right wing formation. The executives have indeed questioned their members on the advisability of changing the statutes in order to choose the means of appointing their candidate for the presidential election of 2022. A question so delayed that it had become a subject of great concern in the corridors of the rue de Vaugirard, at the headquarters of the movement.
Time is in the emergency for LR, while the presidential pre-campaign seems to take place without the right, caught in pincers between Emmanuel Macron, on the one hand, who poaches on his land, and Marine Le Pen, of the another, which targets its disappointed voters. To this duo has recently been added a new protagonist: the far-right polemicist Eric Zemmour, not yet a candidate, but who continues to ogle the reactionary fringe of the right-wing electorate. Sunday September 26, on Europe 1, he accused LR of being “A party of notable centrists” who have “Betrayed General de Gaulle and even Georges Pompidou”. “They claim that I don’t share their values. But themselves, how do they share the values of the RPR and the right before? “, said Zemmour.
It is in this context that the 80,000 members of LR were therefore asked to decide between a primary semi-open to supporters and a decision in congress, where they alone would have the choice of the candidate. They opted for 58% against 40% for this second option, thus reserving the right, on December 4, to nominate their champion for the presidential election.
All candidates, including Bertrand
Everyone “Who share the values of the right and the center” can, officially, stand as candidates for this vote in congress, as long as they bring together 250 sponsorships from thirty different departments. Nothing therefore prevents the president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, the mayor of Garenne-Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine), Philippe Juvin, the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, Eric Ciotti, and the former European Commissioner, Michel Barnier, who were candidates for a possible primary, to seek the support of their political family. They all confirmed their participation in the event immediately after the results. Arousing the sneers of some among the Republicans, who qualify this system as “Closed primary”.
Except that, this time, Xavier Bertrand, the president of the Hauts-de-France region, presidential candidate since April and who categorically refused any primary, should join in the dance. He has not yet officially announced it, unlike the others. But many signals were sent by his relatives. The senator of the Alpes-Maritimes Dominique Estrosi-Sassone, one of her spokespersons, has she not clarified the situation in LR strategic committee, by specifying the intention of her champion to participate in a congress ?
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