Laurent Wauquiez appears in support of François-Xavier Bellamy, the presidential election in his sights

The president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region is getting involved in his party’s European campaign, hiding less and less his ambition for the 2027 presidential election.

This is the last electoral event on a national scale before the next presidential election. From La France insoumise to the National Rally, the European elections are regularly presented as a launching pad before the 2027 presidential election. The Les Républicains party is no exception. LR is playing for its survival in the June election: if it does not pass 5% of the votes on June 9, the party will no longer have seats in the European Parliament.

Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and likely candidate for 2027, is therefore trying to influence the elections, by appearing regularly alongside the head of the list, François-Xavier Bellamy.

“I am not President of the Republic… for the moment”

Saturday March 23, during the first LR campaign meeting in Aubervilliers, it was for Laurent Wauquiez that François-Xavier Bellamy reserved his longest hug. Once on stage, he took care to quickly name the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. “I do not forget to whom I owe the trust that was shown to me five years ago for the first time. And I would like to tell you, dear Laurent, that I hope, despite all the trials that we have gone through , to have lived up to the choice you had made.”

Then party president, it was Laurent Wauquiez who took the risk of designating the philosopher head of the list in 2019. The party’s disappointing score (8.5%) precipitated his resignation. But in front of the media on Wednesday March 27 at Oullins-Pierre-Bénite (Rhône), the two men said they were leading “campaign together to ensure that the right raises its head in this country, to be able to raise the country tomorrow”, according to Bellamy. Laurent Wauquiez praises “clarity and righteousness” of the head of the list, who according to him embodies “the return of coherent right-wing speech, not excessive but very determined on the values ​​it wants to defend.”

Exactly what Laurent Wauquiez imagines himself embodying in 2027. The latter hides his ambitions less and less, as when asked about the action of Gérald Darmanin. “What bothers me is when the work of an Interior Minister is just communication work when what I expect from him is that he protects us. I am not not a President of the Republic… for the moment. I am not Minister of the Interior… for the moment.” THE “for the moment” provoking smiles from those around him. Proof that the campaign for the European elections hides that of the presidential election.