It was the last chance meeting for Valérie Pécresse. This Sunday April 3, one week before the first round, the Republican candidate gathered several thousand supporters at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris. The objective: to relaunch the dynamic around his candidacy and above all to forget the failed meeting of February 13 at the Zénith.
If this meeting was supposed to launch his campaign by making her the main rival of Emmanuel Macron, he had above all signed the start of the hangover. Credited with 16 to 17% of the voting intentions a month and a half ago, even in a position to win in the second round against the president-candidate the day after his victory in the LR Congress in early December, Valérie Pécresse flirts today. today with the 10% mark, according to our Ipsos-Sopra-Steria barometer.
This “crash” of the Zénith, as many commentators had dubbed it at the time, Valérie Pécresse therefore wanted to learn from it. “I was marked by this failure of the Zenith. I wanted to make a speech like a man with powerful words, words of menshe admitted a few days ago. I have since decided to do this campaign in a totally different way, in a liberated and a cappella way.”
It is with this trauma in mind that candidate LR wanted to prepare “a totally different meeting, without artifice, without confetti and without spark unlike what we saw yesterday at Emmanuel Macron”says Brice Hortefeux, Nicolas Sarkozy’s former interior minister. “A great meeting of authenticity where Valérie will be herself”also promised a party tenor just before the start, announcing “a candidate who will be natural and who has really had time to get used to”.
Before speaking, Valérie Pécresse was able to count on the support of several Republican figures. Laurent Wauquiez, the LR president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region who wanted to “to pay tribute to the strength of character of Valérie Pécresse”castigating at the same time “the comedy” Emmanuel Macron’s meeting yesterday afternoon near La Défense Arena.
“You have been criticized for not doing enough comedy. But for comedy, it was yesterday that you had to turn. France does not need actors.”
Laurent Wauquiez, LR president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regionat the Valérie Pécresse meeting
Galvanized by the speeches of the tenors of the party like Gérard Larcher, the president of the Senate or even Christian Jacob, the president of the LR, Valérie Pécresse then presented herself to her voters as a new woman. “In this campaign, I come before the French as I am and as I will remain. You saw me win. You saw me stumble. You saw me get up. You discovered my resistance. My truth. I don’t let go. This courage, I want to put it at your service”she launched in the introduction.
More comfortable and less theatrical than at the Zenith, Valérie Pécresse seemed more direct, not hesitating, unlike her first big meeting, to continue her remarks when the activists gave a little too much voice. Candidate LR also wanted to convince her audience of the changes that the country would experience, if she were to be elected head of state.
“Electing a woman President of the Republic must change things for all women in France. I will create specialized justice against violence against women. Their rights will be defended, their word heard”
Valérie Pécresse, LR presidential candidate
Valérie Pécresse also presented herself as “security and purchasing power candidate”, a way to compete with Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen who are ahead of her in the polls. Emmanuel Macron has also been in his sights on several occasions, denouncing in particular the debt left by the outgoing president. “This crazy money, according to Jupiter’s expression, promises us a crazy debt. ‘I spend therefore I am’: this is Emmanuel Macron’s project”she tackled.
A rather well-turned speech and punchlines which, it seems, convinced the elected officials of the first row, very critical in February of his performance at the Zenith. “I found it excellent both in form and substance”, says hot Jean-François Copé, the mayor of Meaux. For Othman Nasrou, one of the campaign spokespersons, the meeting, the 19th of the name, is “a success”.
“The Zénith was his first big meeting. Which candidate really made a success of his first meeting? Remember Emmanuel Macron’s first meetings in 2017… Tonight, Valérie really found her style and her tone.”
Othman Nasrou, spokesperson for Valérie Pécresse’s campaignat franceinfo
Same story on the side of the activists present, like Hervé and Jeanne, a retired couple from the Ile-de-France. “We were very disappointed at the Zenith and since then we hesitations between Emmanuel Macron and Valérie Pécresse. Fortunately, this evening, she convinced and reassured us”, they slip. But for Loïc, a young LR activist from Normandymass has been said. “The positive side is that she is progressing and I thought that was a good speech. But, I think it’s too late to make up for the points that we are missing in the polls and hope to qualify for the second round.”
Not sure that this meeting, certainly better in form than the previous ones, is indeed enough to save the election of Valérie Pécresse. For Arnaud Mercier, professor of communication at the University of Paris Pathéon-Assas, “the stage performance of a candidate tells us things but that is not enough to explain the vote”.
According to this political communication specialist, it is above all the political positioning of the candidate that is lacking. “She is the victim of a very predictable vice effect, with on the one hand part of her traditional liberal electorate who has gone to Emmanuel Macron and on the other, sovereigntist voters who will vote Marine Le Pen or Eric Zemmour.assures Arnaud Mercier. She was in a jaw and she got crushed.”
“To say the same thing and not to assume her own values by simply changing her tone and character risks making her an insincere character. The challenge for her today is above all to reach at least 10 %.”
Arnaud Mercier, professor of political communicationat franceinfo
A feeling shared by the pollsters. According to Mathieu Gallard, director of studies at Ipsos, Valérie Pécresse did not manage to impose her ideas in the political debate marked by the health crisis and the war in Ukraine. But above all: “If she is now experiencing a constant drop in the polls, it is because for the voters of Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen, she is too weak on immigration and does not offer much on the power of As for Emmanuel Macron, many voters of Valérie Pécresse have turned to him because they want continuity in the action of the State in the management of the Ukrainian file.
One week before the first round, the end of the campaign promises to be complicated for Valérie Pécresse. “We will not give up, we will play everything and aim for the second round”, promised a Republican executive at the foot of the stage after the meeting. Before recognizing a few minutes later, off, “a difficult, even impossible mission for Valérie”.