“Christmas is THE time people get together”, explains in private Christian Jacob, patron of the Republicans, there isn’t a table where it doesn’t talk about politics! ” And even more the last Christmas before the presidential election 2022. This is why around Emmanuel Macron was considered a declaration of candidacy in December, to be at the heart of family conversations. The supporters of this calendar have clearly not won their case.
But it is well on the right, it is well at Les Républicains that we think we have found the best tempo, the best formula. Because the single candidate of LR is appointed in December, and that by then, The Republicans intend to occupy all the media space.
The schedule for The Republicans had been criticized internally, with some believing that the nomination of the presidential candidate came too late. Around Christian Jacob, on the contrary, we are defending a process that “Quietly leads until the truce of the confectioners”. Four debates in November, a national council – a sort of party parliament – in two weeks… Then an electronic vote is organized between December 1 and 4, to elect the candidate. The next day, a family photo. Unity, and smiles …
The following week, the investiture congress is convened in Paris, a sort of first meeting of the candidate. “The objective is to be at Christmas meals with more positive images of a united right wing”, details a right-wing leader.
Except that the right is not the only one to organize itself. An En Marche executive warns: “We are not going to let them occupy all the ground.” One of the spokespersons, Maud Bregeon, has already planned “To be at the front”. “I will be there and I will not be the only one”, she says.
More generally, La République en Marche intends to repeat what has been done in previous years: operations to intellectually equip its members, if an uncle or a cousin at the table launches into the critique of Emmanuel Macron or of his record. In 2017, En Marche published a “Survival guide” for the use of its activists, a vademecum with ready-made answers. Other ideas are on the table for Christmas 2021. “We are in the middle of brainstorming, nothing has been validated yet” explains a frame.
New this year: the presidential party will rely on the application it has just launched, “Je m’engage”, downloaded 10,000 times so far. “This is one of our big distribution levers,” says En Marche, which wants to ramp up its application … by Christmas, of course.