“We were all taken aback“: the surprise been total Sunday night among LR activists in Loiretafter the announcement of Francois Lagarde – the candidate invested in the fall for the legislative elections in the 2nd constituency of Loiret Orléans-Ouest decided to withdraw, due to political differences with the party line which he accuses of not being sufficiently in opposition to Emmanuel Macron. But the right based a lot of hopes on this 2nd constituency, currently held by Caroline Janvier (LREM).
Politics is not about turning around when the wind is against”
To the surprise is also added to some, this Monday, a feeling of anger. Thereby, Eric DoligeMP for this constituency for 15 years (from 1988 to 2002), and currently honorary president of the LRs in the Loiret, does not mince his words: “We had organized ourselves very early, and our candidate let us go at the last moment, he fumes. In politics, the first quality is courage. And courage is going all the way and not turning around when the wind is a little contrary.“
– Francois Gueroult
Eric Doligé says to himself despite everything optimistic for the future : “I know this constituency by heart, and it is really within our reachhe assures. It is a fairly rural constituency, and rurality has been abused by Emmanuel Macron; moreover, the LREM candidate is nothing exceptional. We are going to find an alternative solution, and this solution will probably be better since this U-turn made by our candidate shows that he was not quite up to the task or quite ready to lead this fight, which is even a complicated fight.“
Vocations are rare
Stay at find the rare pearl. And this won’t be so easy. Thus, Alain Touchard, the mayor of Ormes, politely declines the invitation: “Thank you for asking me the question, but it’s nohe laughs. I thought that François Lagarde had the capacity to fulfill this mission, he made another choice, well… Now, I don’t know what will happen, but I can tell you that Alain Touchard will not be in the race.“
Interviewed by France Bleu Orléans, other local elected officials confide that they are not a priori interested in a candidacy for the legislative elections : this is what we were told, for example, by LR Pascal Tebibel, vice-president of Orléans Métropole (and unsuccessful candidate 5 years ago), UDI Florent Montillot, first deputy in Orléans (and who lives the constituency), or even Aurore Caro, regional councilor and assistant in Meung-sur-Loire, presented as one of the new talents of the local right.
Serge Grouard on the front line
From there to imagine that Serge Grouard, former MP for this constituency (from 2002 to 2017), narrowly beaten 5 years ago (49% of the vote) returns there? Complicated, because the mayor of Orléans clearly closed the door to this hypothesis last year : “It’s all seenhe said on France Bleu Orléans on March 19, 2021, there is the non-accumulation of mandates, that would mean that I give up the mandate of mayor to become a deputy again? There is no question !“
But whether he likes it or not, Serge Grouard, who is also president of the LR federation in Loiret, will still be on the front line to find a solution. “Given the heaviness of the case, it’s up to him to speak” do we repeat internally. Especially since it was he who had pushed the candidacy of François Lagarde. And because hurry up : applications for the legislative elections must be submitted to the prefecture between May 16 and May 20.