How to campaign for the legislative elections when you won less than 5% in the presidential election? The question arises on the right with Les Républicains and centrists. In some regions, a solution has been found with a campaign that will be regionalized.
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For example in Normandy, there is no need to look for the logos of the LR, UDI or Les Centristes parties. They will not appear on the posters and leaflets of the 26 right-wing and center candidates in this region. Just there will be the mention “Union of the right and the center”. What will be most visible is the “Conquering Normandy” banner, a banner already used by Hervé Morin to win the regional elections in 2015 and then 2021.
Your elected officials @NdieConquerante gathered today around@Herve_Morin for a majority meeting. The opportunity to mention the many #projects underway for the Normans. #Normandy pic.twitter.com/rCTx9Upsep
— Conquering Normandy (@NdieConquerante) May 2, 2022
This idea of ”standardizing” the campaign comes from a few outgoing deputies, and was approved by all the candidates who will therefore adopt the same graphic charter. It is a question of surfing on the good image enjoyed by the Regional Council in the wake of the reunification of the two Normandys.
It is also a question of marking the local roots of elected officials and candidates, in contrast to those of En Marche who “are disconnected and have not done the job on the ground”, assures Hervé Morin. He hopes that his camp will notably reconquer his former constituency in the Eure. The photo of the regional president will appear on certain campaign documents, depending on the goodwill of the candidates.
This Norman initiative does not seem to bother the national leadership of the Les Républicains party. First, because candidates are free to display political logos or not. It will not be the first time that the acronym of LR will not be used: it was absent from most of the documents for the legislative elections of 2017, in the wake of the non-election of François Fillon. Candidates are “free” to regionalize or departmentalize their campaign. “They have every interest in it!”, concedes a source at the headquarters of the Republicans. He is aware that the party’s image is weakened following Valérie Pécresse’s poor performance.
The Norman initiative could also make children. In Hauts-de-France, the regional president Xavier Bertrand is in great demand to show himself alongside legislative candidates, his photo should be used on certain leaflets, but not on posters, we are told. Same thing in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Laurent Wauquiez must particularly invest in this campaign.
This regionalization will also affect the socialists. Because elected officials have already hinted that he would oppose any agreement between the PS and La France insoumise. This is the case, for example, of the president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga. She presented the PS candidates on Friday throughout the region and they will face the outgoing LFI, like the two deputies from Ariège Bénédicte Taurine and Michel Larive.
Same situation in Paris where Anne Hidalgo intends to present her own deputies. And Martine Aubry wonders. In any case, one certainty: this regionalization of the ballot, on the right as on the left, is further proof of the collapse of the political system as it has existed since 1958.