In 2019, she had left Les Républicains for a time, castigating the “right-winging” of the party. Today invested candidate of the right, the president of the Île-de-France region does not hesitate to give her campaign traditionalist and nationalist accents, notes this German journalist.
A few days after being nominated as the Republican candidate, Valérie Pécresse, 54, devoted a few words to foie gras, which is a traditional Christmas product in the country. “France is France and foie gras is France”, she said in a television interview. For her campaign for the presidential election in April, the Republican candidate is betting on nostalgia for the values and tastes of the past.
Foie gras says a lot about our neighbor so steeped in tradition: this animal product has been banned for a year in the European Union, but France has circumvented the ban by declaring that it is part of its gastronomic cultural heritage. It is almost always served at Christmas and New Year’s Eve, usually lukewarm and with fig compote – a remnant of a time when almost no one was interested in animal welfare.
Pure Parisian
Valérie Pécresse, in the same breath, praised the election of Miss France, which allows everyone to see “beautiful girls [et intelligentes]” once a year. His solutions work for him. According to the polls, she could very well find herself in the second round against Emmanuel Macron. Valérie Pécresse was elected candidate after an internal vote in the party where she was opposed to four men, and describes herself as “two-thirds Merkel, one-third Margaret Thatcher”.
The Republican candidate has a typically Parisian political biography: born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a chic suburb of the capital, she attended a Catholic high school before joining the ENA, the elite establishment from which the most members of the government and deputies. She worked for Jacques Chirac then for Nicolas Sarkozy. And here she comes to play spoilsport in the duel that seemed inevitable between Macron and Marine Le Pen.
The latter had been firmly prepared for it because things seemed advantageously clear: the liberals against the nationalists, the progressives against the retrogrades, Macron proclaimed. The patriot against the traitors, the protector against the globalizer, proclaimed Le Pen. And now ? For the moment, they keep silent about Valérie Pécresse, hoping that the big media coverage caused by her appointment will only benefit her briefly.
Nationalist accents
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Annika Joeres
Source
It is the reference German publication, an authority across the Rhine. This (very) large newspaper of information and political analysis, sharp and demanding, is also distinguished by its highly sought-after layout and iconography. Tolerant and liberal, he
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