“In December, we gave her a Rolls and she gives us back a Lada”, plague a Republican executive, the day after the first round of the presidential election, marked by the crash of Valérie Pécresse. This member of the right wing of the party thus considers that this historic defeat “is 90% his fault”. In the corridors of the headquarters of the Republicans, rue de Vaugirard, the atmosphere is gloomy after the candidate of the Republican right obtained 4.78%, a score which means that the party will not be reimbursed for all of its expenses. campaign. Arriving at her HQ on Monday April 11, Valérie Pécresse therefore launched a “call for donations” : “I need your urgent help. (…) The survival of the Republicans depends on it.”
Behind the scenes, everyone is trying to name someone responsible for this electoral rout. “It is the defeat of those who have held a line that has led us into the wall for too long. Common sense, Fillon, Wauquiez and the rest of the orchestra…” regret a member of the political bureau. “This is the calendar of [Christian] Jacob who screwed us in. In 2016, the guys had been candidates for 2-3 years, they had had time to build their candidacy. There was a Juppeism, a Sarkozyism, a Fillonism. There, there is no pécressisme! comments another frame from LR.
“You can’t make a president in five months, it’s not possible!”
A member of the Republican political bureauat franceinfo
A little after 10 a.m., about twenty party executives met during a strategic council to discuss the situation. In an atmosphere “finally appeased”according to an LR parliamentarian, they spoke of the survival of the party, but did not really analyze the reasons for the defeat, to the great regret of certain executives. “There is no need to go back this morning to last night’s result: we will learn all the lessons, but in due time”said Laurent Wauquiez, who carried a message of unity at a time when his party was threatened with implosion.
“We will have to rebuild everything, rethink everything… But for that, we will have to survive this terrible failure. And that means staying united.”
Laurent Wauquiezduring the strategic council of LR
Then it was a question of the attitude to take for the second round. As soon as the results were announced, Valérie Pécresse declared that she would vote “consciously” for Emmanuel Macron against Marine Le Pen. Without calling to vote for the outgoing president, she nevertheless asked her constituents “to weigh in the days to come with seriousness the potentially disastrous consequences” of an accession to power of the far-right candidate. An instruction followed by several tenors like Xavier Bertrand but not by Eric Ciotti. “I will not give any voting instructions. (…) Personally, I will not vote Emmanuel Macron”said on TF1 the defeated LR Congress finalist.
During the strategic council of the Republicans, Laurent Wauquiez for his part defended a simple position: “No one is calling for Marine Le Pen to vote and all positions must be respected.” This is for the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region to “not to weaken our candidates” with a view to legislative and “do not play the auxiliaries” of the two finalists in the race for the Elysée. “Because otherwise we no longer have a reason to exist.” According to participants in the meeting, the position of the one who led the party from 2017 to 2019 was then approved by a majority of the members of the bureau present. And the president of the party endorsed this strategy.
“No voice can be cast on Marine Le Pen. The Republicans are neither fungible in lepenism nor macronism.”
Christian Jacobat the end of the political office of the Republicans
The head of the Republicans clarified that he would personally vote for Emmanuel Macron. About 130 people took part in the vote of the political office and only 13 members abstained (notably Eric Ciotti, Gilles Platret, Alain Joyandet and Michèle Alliot-Marie). Guillaume Larrivé, he voted against. “I do not approve of a motion that does not explicitly call for a vote for Emmanuel Macron on April 24”justifies the deputy of Yonne.
“Everything went well, apart from Guillaume Larrivé who distinguished himself by saying that an alliance had to be made with Macron, by defending Sarkozy’s strategy”, comments MP Julien Aubert, who has already announced that he will not vote for Emmanuel Macron. Another LR executive, present in the political office and who abstained, does not have the same reading: “We transformed into the Socialist Party, we don’t decide anything, it’s a soft synthesis… I would have liked us to be clearer with regard to our opposition to the National Rally. We were still very happy in 2002 to have the Republican front.
“There are two lines that are starting to become really irreconcilable.”
A member of the political bureau of LRat franceinfo
Gil Averous, chairman of the LR mayors’ committee, which is calling for Emmanuel Macron to vote, also abstained and announced to Christian Jacob that he was resigning from his duties at LR. “For me, the question of a departure arises. I am very sad for my political family”adds an LR supporter of the dam facing the far right.
“Everyone is paralyzed and no one dares to say anything. They look like cattle keeping themselves warm on their way to the slaughterhouse, and saying to themselves: ‘Everything is fine as long as we keep warm’.”
A Republican cadreat franceinfo
Proponents of a clear line to counter the RN are now turning their gaze to Nicolas Sarkozy. According to Point, the former president would have eaten recently with Bruno Le Maire to consider the rallying of some of the LR deputies to the future presidential majority. Nicolas Sarkozy, whose silence has plagued the campaign of Valérie Pécresse, has planned to have lunch on Tuesday with the elected officials of Hauts-de-Seine and should speak during the week concerning the second round, according to several relatives of the former president.
Behind the strategies of the moment, all LR executives have in mind the legislative elections, on June 12 and 19. The right-wing party hopes to preserve the hundred seats they have in the National Assembly. “It will be hard, especially for new candidatespredicts Julien Aubert. And I think that after the legislative elections, depending on the survivors, there will be a recomposition. Either we will find a synthetic personality capable of embodying balance, or we risk being cut in two.