Bertrand, Barnier, Juvin, Ciotti… and now the center right. For weeks now, the candidate of the Les Républicains (LR) party for the presidency proclaims herself “gatherer”. At the beginning of December, in the wake of her victory at the congress, Valérie Pécresse set out to unite her political family by entrusting in particular to the four unsuccessful candidates – whom she nicknamed her “four musketeers” – and their entourages strategic places in a plethoric campaign team.
Now it’s time to open up to old friends. On Saturday, Nicolas Sarkozy’s former budget minister visited the two center-right parties, the Centrists of the president of the Normandy region, Hervé Morin, and the UDI of the deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis, Jean-Christophe. The guard. Both have formalized their support for the Republican candidate. A kind of moderate parenthesis in a campaign hitherto very focused on the right.
“Your program fits us like a glove”
Late morning, we talk like this “education”, “decentralization” Where «culture» at the Maison de la Chimie in Paris, two streets from the National Assembly, when Valérie Pécresse arrives. Since 9 a.m., Morin has gathered his troops for a national council dedicated to the presidential election and the upcoming legislative elections. “I’m very happy to be here to expand the rally around me for the win,” slips the president of the Ile-de-France region to the cameras before a quick walkabout and a presentation of the party’s candidates for the next legislative elections. Pécresse then sits in the front row awaiting his closing speech. Before that, the elected officials of the party created after successive splits with the old UDF and the UDI must approve the resolution of support for the candidate. A formality. Almost all arms will be raised during the show of hands.
© Provided by Liberation
Valérie Pécresse, Saturday, before the national council of the UDI in Vincennes.
Especially since the party boss is a long-time supporter of Valérie Pécresse. “For more than a year, I have been the first to support Valérie Pécresse’s candidacy for the presidential election, reminds Morin at the podium. Since 2017, we have been involved in all electoral battles and have sometimes shown more solidity than certain members of the Republicans. Especially in the 2017 presidential and European elections. Then, to avoid any controversy over a potential malaise of the center right towards the right-wing campaign of candidate LR, the Norman evacuates: “Your program fits us like a glove. When you are from the center right, you are liberal, which means that you want the restoration of a strong state on its sovereign missions such as the police and justice.
“The Kärcher in the closet”
Video: 2022: “Emmanuel Macron did not take his chance”: Valérie Pécresse castigates the five-year term of office of the president (Le Figaro)
2022: “Emmanuel Macron did not take his chance”: Valérie Pécresse castigates the president’s five-year mandate
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Since her inauguration, the former minister has effectively focused her campaign on security issues or issues related to immigration. At the beginning of January, Pécresse ensured, for example, in an interview with Provence, that she wanted “bringing the Kärcher out of the cellar”. An expression borrowed from Nicolas Sarkozy. Just a few days ago, candidate LR was in Greece to show her firmness on migration issues denouncing a “Europe colander” or renting “barbed wire walls” against immigrants.
© Provided by Liberation
Valérie Pécresse, Saturday at the auditorium of Vincennes.
But this Saturday, she left the instrument in the closet. The hour is rather with the taste buds with the centrists. “Your support touches me, honors me and obliges me, assures the candidate. Your choice is that of those with guts and loyalty.” And the former Minister of Higher Education to launch into an idyllic description of the center: “It is not a land where we take refuge when we do not want to choose, the center has freedom at its heart, the center is anchored in the territories, the center defends decentralization, the center is the gone from Simone Veil too. And the center is also gender equality.” Obviously, the assistance appreciates and applauds.
On the program side, again, Pécresse takes care to develop above all the themes dear to the centrists. On education, the candidate reaffirms her desire to create a “educational nation” in particular by creating a national educational reserve to make tutoring accessible to all or by establishing an exam before entering sixth grade. The former minister also insists on her desire to “debureaucratize” and of “decentralize” the society. Then, after almost half an hour on the family, ecology or the necessary budgetary savings, direction Vincennes where the UDI, the other family of the center right, awaits it. But before leaving, questioned by the press on a potential double discourse to please a moderate electorate and an electorate more to the right, Pécresse assures: “I used exactly the same word to talk about education, the Republic, or security yesterday with Laurent Wauquiez at Le Puy-en-Velay.”
Lack of networks
Pécresse’s afternoon finally looks like a copy-paste of the morning. Auditioned by several elected UDI on Europe, territories or new solidarities, the candidate LR highlights the very many convergences between her party and that of Jean-Christophe Lagarde. “We are really very, very online”, she says about decentralization issues. “There are a lot of subjects on which we find ourselves, I can still enrich my program with your measurements”, she then summarizes. Then, the members of the national council are invited to approve using their telephones the support of the UDI for the candidacy of Pécresse. Small problem, the absence of networks in the auditorium forced a good part of the room to go out to be able to vote. It is therefore in front of sparse stands that the party caciques deliver their speeches.
© Provided by Liberation
Jean-Christophe Lagarde, president of the UDI, Saturday in Vincennes.
Like Morin a few hours earlier, Lagarde took care to evacuate any potential malaise on the Pécresse line. “Those who seek to oppose us do not know us, I have no problem with the fact that the State must restore order, because it is the best way to protect the weakest.” Even on the use of the word “Kärcher” the deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis affirms: “These are just expressions, the truth is that if they describe acts that help clean up neighborhoods where people walk with their heads down, because they are afraid of criminals, that’s fine with me.” As in the morning, the national council of the UDI votes almost unanimously – 96.73% – support for Pécresse. The president of the Ile-de-France region will then resume her own words of the midday: “Your support, touches me, honors me and obliges me.” The circle is complete.