The former leader of the Les Républicains party and president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region intervenes little in national politics. The riots finally brought him out of his media silence.
For the past two weeks, Laurent Wauquiez has been giving interviews to denounce the violence linked to the riots and to advocate more firmness, going so far as to propose a “national unity” to Emmanuel Macron in Le Figaro July 12. So far, the former leader of the Republicans has been discreet in the national media, he says he is “preparing” away from the cameras for his very likely candidacy for the presidential election.
>> Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region: Laurent Wauquiez’s choices shake the world of culture
At the headquarters of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Council in Lyon, Laurent Wauquiez is called “Mr. President”. He strives to make his community a “laboratory” of what he would like to do on the scale of France. His greatest pride: the financial health of his region. “We are three times better in terms of the debt ratiosays Laurent Wauquiez. It’s really a matter of ethical requirement.”
“In the management of a country, we do not make the generations who come pay for our lifestyle today.”
Laurent Wauquiez, LR president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regionat franceinfo
The regional press conference is tinged with references to national politics, and it continues a few hours later when he chairs the plenary session. “You will have to be a little more proactive”launches an elected leftist who works on photovoltaics. “The reality is that you just have an approach that is far left. The only way you show up on environmental issues is with stupid polemics”replies the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, provoking applause from his camp.
“A clientelist and authoritarian mode of governance”
The leader of the socialists Najat Vallaud-Balkacem is particularly critical of the Wauquiez style: “His mode of governance is clientelism, authoritarianism and a poor sense of the common good which aims above all to serve his career path.” An opinion shared by ecologists, Fabienne Grebert denounces in particular the brutal cuts in cultural subsidies: “What Laurent Wauquiez wants are cultural actors at his heels.”
“When a union official, who is also the director of a theater, does not agree with Laurent Wauquiez, he sees his subsidies cut off.”
Fabienne Grebert, regional environmental adviserat franceinfo
Criticisms swept away by the majority on the right: Vice-President Nicolas Daragon advances his figures to prove that the world of culture receives more and that the money is well managed. Asked about an event that caused controversy, the famous “Dinner of the summits” wanted by Laurent Wauquiez, and the addition of 100,000 euros for a hundred guests, Nicolas Daragon affirms that “This has brought together the locomotives of all the economic, sporting and cultural sectors of our region, which have hardly ever rubbed shoulders since there were contracts signed between them. It has improved their economic actions for the benefit of the regional territory. “. But when asked if a bill of 1,000 euros per person isn’t a little shocking, there is no answer. Nicolas Daragon prefers to move on to another subject, a sign that the episode is embarrassing in the entourage of Laurent Wauquiez.
Laurent Wauquiez in his regional “laboratory”: report by Audrey Tison
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