“I say to voters who are attached to the ideal of the Republicans, that this ideal has been totally distorted and that the one who carries it best today is President Macron”said Wednesday, February 9 on franceinfo Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, after the decision of the deputy LR of Oise Éric Woerth to “put on leave” Republicans for “to be consistent with its decision to support the candidacy of Emmanuel Macron”.
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“You don’t leave your historic party without it being heartbreaking”, assures Christian Estrosi who has also left the Republicans. He shares “the same vision as Eric Woerth” that a second term of Emmanuel Macron “would be a real second chance.”
franceinfo: Like him, you were in the government during Nicolas Sarkozy’s mandate. What does Eric Woerth’s rallying to Emmanuel Macron inspire in you?
Christian Estrosi: Éric Woerth was in Finance. I was at Industry. We are both close to Nicolas Sarkozy. Today is a new beginning. I imagine how heartbreaking it is for Eric, as it was for me. You don’t leave your historic party without it being heartbreaking. But leaving a partisan structure is not leaving your political family. This is why I consider this departure to be significant. The Republicans, the candidate, refuse to clearly choose a Republican line where we have an incumbent president who has made reforms that we could have done perfectly ourselves and which were in our program. A president who, on the international scene, today occupies a place that allows us to see France once again exist and be respected. A president who brought certain measures that we were asking for, such as the reform of the Labor Code, the abolition of the SNCF monopoly, the reform of unemployment insurance while having to manage crises which did not allow him to go to the end of all the structural reforms that we would have needed.
“I share the same vision as Éric Woerth according to which, yes, it would be a real second chance, with a second mandate, to have all the freedom to make these reforms that Nicolas Sarkozy could not make because he didn’t get that second term.”
Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Niceat franceinfo
Éric Woeth judged that Valérie Pécresse’s campaign was that of “a nostalgic France, curled up on itself”. Do you make the same observation?
Yes, and yet, it is not for lack of myself to have occupied much in my public life – and to continue to do so as mayor with the first municipal police force in France – the security field. Today, we have a record with more police officers, a record with a global vision of security, strengthened intelligence services and a balanced, reasonable and firm vision of the future. However, the future of France must be based, in this presidential debate, first on the modernization of our economy. The France 2030 plan, whether on innovation, on production, on our industrial sovereignty, on everything that can generate the shares of growth that we need for our social cohesion, are fundamentals that are not part of the presidential campaign debate. This positioning of the Republicans, who nevertheless are the heirs of the great history written by de Gaulle, Chirac, Pompidou, Giscard and of which we ourselves were the bearers with Éric Woerth, under the impetus of Nicolas Sarkozy, we can no longer to recognize. And I say to voters who, like us, are attached to the ideal of the Republicans, that this ideal has been totally distorted and that basically, the one who wears it best today is President Macron.
Should we expect other rallies?
The south-east of France was par excellence the place where we were most established. Having discouraged me, fifth city of France, having discouraged Hubert Falco and the great metropolis of Toulon, having discouraged Renaud Muselier, who left the Republicans. We remain attached to our history, we do not betray our history. We believe that it is those who hold the reins of the Republicans today who betray the history of our movement.
“One or two starts, we can say that it’s an anecdote. Five or six, we have to ask ourselves questions. More than ten, I think we should seriously question ourselves.”
Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Niceat franceinfo
And it’s really because, despite everything we tried for many of us, we didn’t have this questioning that, somewhere, it was with a heavy heart that we made the choice. pragmatism, the choice of reason, the choice of the general interest for our country and for its economic, industrial and social future.
Is this the end of your old party, Les Républicains?
I don’t wish them. I have served this political family too much not to wish for the disappearance of a family to which I gave a lot, in which I believed a lot, served and hoped. I simply hope that one day, reason will prevail and that he will prefer to be part of a strategy of intelligent coalition and support. And that at a time when the international crisis, when health threats are still there, we know how to defend the public interest for our country. To have a common industrial patriotism, to be more representative on the international scene, rather than being for what is against, and against what is for, to be in gesticulation and slogans from morning to night, which does not look like nothing to the great story in which we participated, Éric Woerth, Hubert Falco, Arnaud Robinet, Catherine Vautrin, Edouard Philippe, Gérald Darmanin, Bruno Le Maire, Jean Castex and so many others. Because basically, look at what the Republicans refused to do, Emmanuel Macron, it is with us that he came to seek the resources that will have been most useful for the success of this mandate.