A year after the last presidential election, four years before the next, the Republicans are holding their “States General” in Paris on Saturday to revive the right.
“Our goal is to prepare for the post-Macron period”, assures France Inter, Geoffroy Didier, MEP and Deputy Secretary General of the Republicans, while his party is to launch Saturday June 17 the “States General of the Right”. Through this great rally, organized at the Cirque d’hiver in Paris, the LR party wants to “constitute a doctrine, a line, and even a social project”, he explains. He indicates that his party wants above all “Engage in a broad reflection on the future of the right” with the next presidential election in 2027 in sight.
It is thus a question of making an inventory of the right-wing in France after the last presidential election which saw the candidate LR Valérie Pécresse collect less than 5% of the votes in the first round. “We are starting from afar and it’s been too long since we won an election”, regrets the MEP. Geoffroy Didier mentions in particular the departure of many LR members in recent years.
“Some abstain because they no longer believe in politics; many turned to Emmanuel Macron thinking he was a solution; others turned to Éric Zemmour.”
Geoffroy DidierFrance Inter
These differences must be heard during these Estates General. “We are going to have to turn to all these right-wing French people who have turned away from us, who no longer have confidence in us and whom we have disappointed”, he throws. Geoffroy Didier thus recognizes that his party had “shortcomings and weaknesses” in recent years, but also quite recentlyt “during the debate on the pension reform where we were not readable in the eyes of the French”, he admits. The Deputy Secretary General of the Republicans recalls that “the vast majority of parliamentarians, elected officials and members of the political bureau were in favor” to this reform.
“There will always be a microphone to hear” the differences
The Deputy Secretary General of the Republicans assures that these Estates General will take place “in a state of mind of lucidity and humility”. To do this, he invites “everyone to put their ego in the locker room, for a few months, to indulge in a collective, positive and forward-looking reflection”. Geoffroy Didier is categorical: if a common line must be established at the end of these states general, “With no doubt a vote of Les Républicains members at the end, in January 2024”, “that does not mean that there will not be differences” within the party. “There will always be a microphone to hear them”he promises.
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“People must learn to work together and also to respect the choices that will be made, even if those who do not make these choices speak in their own name and not in the name of the party”, specifies MEP LR. Thematic work will be undertaken after the Estates General. “We are going to discuss with intellectuals and trade unionists, confront our points of view with people who do not think like us”assures Geoffroy Didier.