Less than two months before the first round of the presidential election, Valérie Pécresse is the guest of the political interview “20h22” of the 20 hours newspaper of France 2 and the France Télévisions channel on Twitch, Tuesday February 15. “I am the true Republican bulwark to the theory of ‘great replacement’“said the candidate of the Les Républicains party after her first major meeting in Paris. A speech expected when she faces many criticisms within her political formation, and fierce competition from the far right. On France 2, the interview will be conducted by Anne-Sophie Lapix, Mohamed Bouhafsi and Nathalie Saint-Cricq. In the wake of this interview, Valérie Pécresse will answer questions from viewers on Twitch. Samuel Etienne and Alix Bouilhaguet will host this exchange. Follow our live.
A very criticized first meeting. Valérie Pécresse was counting on her first major meeting in Paris on Sunday to relaunch a losing campaign, but her performance did not have the desired effect at all. The candidate LR has since found herself in the spotlight. Some members of his own camp did not hide their disappointment behind the scenes with his performance, both in form and in substance. “Where is the political animal to fight Macron, Le Pen and Zemmour?“, wondered a parliamentarian. “It was the Titanic”, added another, who did not hide his fear of new defections from LR.
A “right-wing” that questions. Caught in the polls between the two far-right candidates, Valérie Pécresse is accused of taking up some of their proposals on subjects such as national identity, secularism or immigration. But it’s mostly his use of the controversial theory of “great replacement”, a concept defended by Eric Zemmour, who shocked many of his supporters during his meeting. The candidate tried to justify herself on Monday at the microphone of RTL: “The sentence is: ‘JI resign myself neither to the great downgrading nor to the ‘great replacement’. VSthat means that I do not resign myself, precisely, to the theories of Eric Zemmour and to the theories of the extreme right, because I know that another way is possible”she said.
A campaign that is marking time and polls that are stagnating. After his victory at the congress of the right in December, Valérie Pécresse experienced a spectacular takeoff in the polls. And even if his campaign seems to be marking time, it is regularly given in the second round against Emmanuel Macron in opinion polls in recent months. But the latest trends put her behind Marine Le Pen, with whom she is neck and neck, and only a few points ahead. Eric Zemmour. The outgoing president, who has still not applied, is largely in the lead in terms of voting intentions.
Republicans (very) divided. Accused of being too distant from the concerns of the French, Valérie Pécresse is struggling to convince her own camp. The candidate has still not received the official support of the former President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy and has been the victim for several days of several defections. The most emblematic is that of former minister Eric Woerth, who joined the Macron camp with a bang last week. Two other elected LRs also left the ship: the mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, and the former secretary of state Nora Berra. Rachida Dati, for her part, severely crushed Patrick Stefanini, the campaign manager of candidate LR, calling him a “loser” and of “deserter”.