Lunch will take place Thursday noon, at the headquarters of the Republicans, just before the Versailles summit organized by the Elysée. The right prides itself on bringing together around forty European leaders, including eight heads of state and government.
Also confirmed, according to LR: the President of the European Commission Ursula von Der Leyen, Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Parliament, and the former President of the European Council Donald Tusk. Prestigious cast… “It was not necessarily won to bring them all to LR headquarters”, recognizes a party official. Around the table, there will also be Valérie Pécresse, who does not have an active role on the European scene, but who hopes to endorse it if she is elected next month.
At the origin of the meeting: a former MEP, Franck Proust, member of Valérie Pécresse’s team, and who also happens to be vice-president of the European People’s Party. The EPP is the common house of the European right, the formation where the French Republicans coexist, the German CDU to which Ursula von Der Leyen belongs, the Maltese nationalist party from which Roberta Metsola comes, and so on. Franck Proust had issued the invitation long before the war broke out in Ukraine, since it was expected that these officials would be in Paris as part of the French presidency of the European Union. They had been offered to combine their trip with a “EPP summit”. What they accepted.
It is true that the meeting takes on a completely different dimension in the context of the war in Ukraine, which will take up most of the discussions. Also on the menu: the future of Europe, too, and that of the European right, still struck by the defeat of the CDU in the German federal elections last September. “This defeat has re-politicized the EPPargues a tenor from the right, who assures that the European right gives very broad support to Valérie Pécresse for the presidential election.“ Will this support show up on Thursday? Delicate…
The lunch will be behind closed doors, the cameras will just be able to capture the handshakes on arrival with Valérie Pécresse. A press conference will take place after lunch, but one of the questions that remained to be decided on Monday evening is: will the LR candidate be on the stage? “The photo can be beautifulis already dreaming of one of his supporters. The real question: does she manage to capitalize on it?” On the one hand, the right sees in it a window of opportunity to praise the network and the international stature of its candidate. On the other hand, there is the risk of offending the European partners if the questions relate only to the electoral campaign.