The right had put an option on one of the halls of the Porte de Versailles in Paris and hoped to bring together 5,000 to 10,000 people, Saturday, December 11, to put the winner of the Les Républicains congress, Valérie Pécresse, into orbit. Show the gathered family, launch a dynamic for the 2022 presidential election … Except that at the start of the vote, in the middle of last week, the Republican executives began to have doubts, to consider that maintaining such a meeting was not not very “reasonable” with epidemic resumption. “The decision was taken collectively to cancel the meeting of December 11”, explains someone close to Valérie Pécresse. Why ? “You couldn’t take the responsibility of moving a lot of people and creating a cluster.”
“Responsibility and credibility”, these are two words that have been repeated a lot by LR executives since the start of the pandemic. Who see it as a signature of the government right in the face of national, populist rights … In the viewfinder: Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen.
Except that the decision to cancel the meeting of December 11 will initially annoy two left-wing candidates, Yannick Jadot and Anne Hidalgo, who are both planning a meeting, this same weekend. Yannick Jadot will be on December 11 in Laon in the Aisne, and Anne Hidalgo the next day in Perpignan in the Pyrénées-Orientales. At this stage, everyone keeps their date, “while waiting for what will be decided in defense council on Monday”, while a health defense council meets at the Elysee. But the two argue that their gatherings are not comparable in terms of attendance to what The Republicans expected. A little more than a thousand people expected at Anne Hidalgo, a little less at Yannick Jadot.
On the environmental side, measures have already been taken: a 50% gauge, buses to bring participants to the gymnasium, which ensures that they are not more than 350. All other registrants are switched to digital. “We had already thought of a format that can adapt, explains a spokesperson, to be able to hold a meeting even under constraints. “
Anne Hidalgo’s team meets on Monday morning to see how far to adapt. “For now, we maintain with mask inside and sanitary pass at the entrance”, explains a socialist, very annoyed by the irresponsibility lawsuit launched by Les Républicains. According to him, the reasons for this cancellation are to be found elsewhere: “They were not ready to play the match of the images with Eric Zemmour”, tackle this close to Anne Hidalgo.