Vice-president of the Les Républicains party a month ago, today Éric Zemmour’s spokesperson for the 2022 presidential election: Guillaume Peltier, deputy for Loir-et-Cher, announced on Sunday January 9 his rallying to the former polemicist. “I made the decision to support the only candidate of the right, the only candidate faithful to the values of the RPR”, he explains on the Cnews channel. It’s a semi-surprise, given his closeness already displayed with Eric Zemmour. Florence Portelli, spokesperson for Valérie Pécresse, indicates Sunday on franceinfo that it is “a non-event”.
For Florence Portelli, Guillaume Peltier has “a fairly clear course, fed at the National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen, then at Bruno Mégret”, and he who was a member of the UMP then the Republicans since 2009 wears “the marks of the extreme right”. After joining the National Youth Front in 1996, Guillaume Peltier left the FN in 1998 after the split between Jean-Marie Le Pen and Bruno Mégret. He chose to follow the latter to the National Republican Movement (MNR) and the National Youth Movement, in 1998. Then he joined the Movement for France (MPF), the party of Philippe de Villiers, in 2001, and he became the spokesperson for the sovereignist for the presidential campaign of 2005. In 2009, he took the plunge and joined the UMP. After obtaining the nomination of the right-wing party in the legislative elections of 2012, he joined the team of spokespersons for Nicolas Sarkozy, presidential candidate.
The rallying of Guillaume Peltier to Eric Zemmour is not entirely a surprise, but it is nevertheless a little more than the “non-event” described by Florence Portelli. Or even the burst of laughter from Marine Le Pen at the announcement of the rally. “That does not surprise me, she reacted when she heard the news. He will have made all the political movements, our friend Guillaume! ”
In fact, it is a political reinforcement of weight for Eric Zemmour. During the Villepinte meeting in early December, Guillaume Peltier had already wondered in a tweet “how to remain insensitive” to Eric Zemmour’s speech.
How to remain insensitive to the discourse for France of@ ZemmourEric ? With my friend @ECiotti, I persist and I sign.
A single opponent, Emmanuel Macron; a single objective, to repair France; only one way, to unite all the voters of the right, with @the Republicans.#Villepinte pic.twitter.com/y5CtnzKpXv– Guillaume Peltier (@G_Peltier) December 5, 2021
A tweet which had earned him to be disembarked from the leadership of the Republicans, but he had not been excluded. Before that, last July, boss LR Christian Jacob announced his decision to withdraw from Guillaume Peltier his title of deputy vice-president of the party, after positions taken that had “weakened” movement. Guillaume Peltier had affirmed his proximity to the mayor of Béziers Robert Ménard, elected in 2014 with the support of the FN.
“He doesn’t know what to hold on to anymore, insists the spokesperson for Valérie Pécresse, Florence Portelli, he spun around a lot. He was someone who comes from the far right and is returning there. “ To this day, Guillaume Peltier is still LR deputy for Loir-et-Cher, vice-president of the group at the National Assembly. And he represents a voice that matters. Eric Ciotti, for whom he called to vote at the December 2 congress, today says he is disappointed. “He is committing a serious fault”, he believes. To explain his rallying, Peltier claims to have made his decision “in the name of the 40% of the members of the Republicans who voted like me for Eric Ciotti”.
While the candidacy of Eric Zemmour appears a little isolated, it is a support that can count more than that of Frédéric Poisson or even Philippe de Villiers. Guillaume Peltier will be appointed spokesperson for Eric Zemmour. And this reinforcement comes at a time when Éric Zemmour, in the polls, is standing still, even losing ground to the benefit of Marine Le Pen and Valérie Pécresse, in our Ipsos Sopra Steria survey for franceinfo and Le Parisien-Today in France. It ranks only fourth in terms of first round voting intentions with 12%. It was still 14% in December.
While Eric Zemmour is also encountering difficulties in obtaining his 500 sponsorships, this position taken by Guillaume Peltier could also strengthen his dynamic and his credibility. It is important with elected officials.
It remains to be seen whether this support is the start of a movement of hemorrhage in LR, if Éric Zemmour can concretely achieve the union of the rights, to expand his party called Reconquest to the disappointed of LR and to those who find that Valérie Pécresse reaches out too much to the centrists. If Julien Aubert, LR deputy for Vaucluse, believes that “to leave his political family” is always “a transgressive act”, he is keen to set limits for this transgression: no touch with the Gaullist heritage. By announcing his rallying, Guillaume Peltier called for the RPR. “I remind you that neither Éric Zemmour nor Guillaume Peltier were at the RPR”, Julien Aubert replies. “It’s annoying because it all gives the impression that this is all drama and people have no beliefs.”