Has Valérie Pécresse changed her speech since 2012, as Gabriel Attal says?

While the oppositions rise up against the televised intervention of Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, December 15, Gabriel Attal defended the President of the Republic by explaining that even if the campaign has started its “word is expected and legitimate”… in a time of crisis. The government spokesperson told franceinfo that “the time, (Valérie Pécresse) defended the fact that the President of the Republic could speak in a context of crisis”. He has also unearthed a quote that dates from 2012, when she was government spokesperson under Nicolas Sarkozy.

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“I hope that the President of the Republic is a candidate as late as possible, said Gabriel Attal, quoting Valérie Pécresse, because we need a president who takes action. Today we are in a period of crisis and in any case, for the moment the subject is the French, unemployment, growth, Europe. So we are totally up to our task, and for the presidential election, the time will come ‘. Do you know who said that? It’s Valérie Pécresse, at the end of January 2012. “ It is true, the current candidate Les Républicains made more or less these remarks on January 31, 2012 on France Inter while she was the government spokesperson, under Nicolas Sarkozy.

If at the time Valérie Pécresse said that, it is because there was a controversy over the participation of Nicolas Sarkozy in a television program. The former president had participated three days before in a presidential interview. The interview was broadcast on eight television channels at the same time. An unprecedented device and at the time already the opposition criticized the incumbent president for taking advantage of his position to campaign without saying so because at the end of January 2012, at the time of the interview, Nicolas Sarkozy was not yet a candidate and he refused that evening to say more about his intentions

“Let it be clear, explained the President of the Republic, let’s not play cat and mouse. I want people to understand without doubt that my interest would be to say ‘here I have decided to …’ I am the President of the Republic of the 5th country in the world. If one day I have to go into campaign, then I will be the candidate. And this day finally arrived two weeks later since Nicolas Sarkozy declared himself in mid-February.

However, that evening, during the interview with the president not yet a candidate, his speaking time was nevertheless counted as that of a presumed candidate by the CSA, as claimed today by Valérie Pécresse and part of the opposition for Emmanuel Macron.