He’s going to get the ball rolling. François-Xavier Bellamy, head of the Les Républicains list European elections of June 9is the first guest of “Tomorrow Europe”, Monday March 18, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., on franceinfo. The MEP, struggling in the polls, will answer questions of Jérôme Chapuis and Salhia Brakhlia, surrounded byAna Navarro Pedro, Portuguese journalist, correspondent in Paris from the weekly Visão, by Mihaela Antoche, Romanian journalist, as well as Renaud Dély, editorialist at franceinfo. Follow his interview in our live stream.
In search of political space. Appointed head of the LR list in January, François-Xavier Bellamy has so far favored a “proximity” campaign by participating in a first major meeting in Paris on March 23. The MEP is looking for a space between Macronism and the far right. He thus made “border protection” and of “economic sovereignty” two essential axes of his campaign. Echoing the anger of the farmers, he said “hostile to free trade agreements” and demands “a moratorium on environmental issues”.
He plays big. By agreeing to lead the LR list again in the European elections, François-Xavier Bellamy knows that he is playing big, and so does his party: this election “has a lot to do with the future of our family politics, but also of democratic life in France”, he confided when receiving the investiture in January. In 2019, in an election dominated by the RN (23.34%) and Renaissance (22.42%), the LR list he led had collected 8.48% of the votes (8 seats), behind Europe Ecologie-Les Greens (13.48%) but ahead of La France insoumise (6.31%) and the PS (6.19%).
Polls at half mast. Since then, his party suffered a failure in the last presidential election, with Valérie Pécresse’s 4.78%. A score for his list again below 5% in June would mean that Les Républicains would not send any MP to the European Parliament. For the moment, François-Xavier Bellamy is fifth in the polls, behind Jordan Bardella (RN), Valérie Hayer (Renaissance), Raphaël Glucksmann (Place publique-PS) and Marie Toussaint (Les Ecologistes).