It was a very scrutinized meeting. The Republican (LR) candidate for the presidential election, Valérie Pécresse, held her first major meeting on Sunday February 13 in Paris in front of some 7,500 activists, while her campaign, pounded by the far right, is struggling to revive.
It was time for the rally and all the tenors on the right had made the trip, except former President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose critical remarks leaked this week in the press, before a meeting on Friday with Valérie Pécresse, which looked like appeasement.
In her speech of more than an hour, she was very firm on the sovereign, while Eric Zemmour judged her “no right” Saturday. “We are at the crossroads” but there is “no fatality, nor to the ‘great replacement’ [expression d’ordinaire prisée de l’extrême droite, qui craint le “remplacement” de la population française par les vagues successives de migrations] nor to the great downgrading”said Valérie Pécresse.
If she did not present any new measure – apart from the use of the citizens’ initiative referendum – she addressed all aspects of her program: “educational nation”defense of nuclear power, 10% increase in salaries… “I want France in order because I want the France of harmony”she hammered. In the public, activists from the far-right collective Nemesis briefly unfurled a banner “Do not hide your face”, quickly seized by the security service.
For candidate LR, who is regularly criticized for being too technocratic, the challenge was also to humanize her candidacy. That’s what she tried to do at the end, despite a tone very solemn and sometimes appearing overplayed throughout his speech, recounting his childhood “teacher’s daughter”her psychiatrist grandfather, and by thanking her husband Jérôme and her children, of whom she said “so proud”.
Unsurprisingly, his opponents judged his performance harshly. The far right mocked a speech where “everything falls flat”according to the spokesperson for Marine Le Pen, Sébastien Chenu. “Shipwreck Live”, tweeted Samuel Laffont, in charge of digital at Eric Zemmour. The Minister Delegate for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, did not hesitate to be ironic, on Cnews, on a “actress who did not seem in one of her very great days” with a “long” speech who “sounded pretty wrong”.
Commentators from the political arena also found the exercise unsuccessful. “I look in my memories for a speaker as visibly uncomfortable at the podium of a meeting as Valérie Pécresse”tweeted journalist Jean-Michel Apathie.
No bias, but I search my memories for a speaker as visibly uncomfortable at the podium of a meeting as @vpecresse to #ZenithPecresse So far, I haven’t found it. Amazing, right?
— jean-michel aphatie (@jmaphatie) February 13, 2022
On condition of anonymity, many tenors of the right also regretted the performance of their candidate, with BFMTV.