They entered together in this room in Brive-la-Gaillarde, in Corrèze, and sat side by side, Friday March 11: Valérie Pécresse, the candidate Les Républicains in the presidential election, and Claude Chirac, daughter of the former president and departmental councilor in this Corrèze where his father built his career.
A few days after the debate against Eric Zemmour, this symbolic support puts balm in the heart of Valérie Pécresse, who continues her campaign despite criticism and declining polls. “Your name is synonymous with courage, so your support today touches me and honors me”, declared the candidate to the attention of her ex-colleague at the Elysée. The two women rubbed shoulders there: Valérie Pécresse was project manager then technical advisor to Jacques Chirac between 1997 and 2002, while Claude Chirac was his father’s communications advisor.
She continues by also thanking François Baroin and Christian Jacob. In fact, it is all of Chiraquia which has come together to support the candidacy of the president of the Ile-de-France region. The latter does not fail to invoke her mentor: “It was he who sowed in me this little seed of politics, this passion for serving the French”. “He did not need five years in office to learn to love the French. He had always loved them”she adds, in reference to the little sentence of Emmanuel Macron, last December, who said he had “learned to love the French better”.
Claude Chirac responds with a smile, without speaking, as usual. But his presence is enough to strengthen the Corrèze militants. “Politics interested me thanks to this great president who was Jacques Chirac. His convictions, I find them in Valérie Pécresse”says one of them. “She is a woman who wants it and I think that this woman is quite capable of raising France”, adds another. From there to see in Valérie Pécresse the political reincarnation of Jacques Chirac? “They are totally different characters”recognizes the activist, who, like the campaign team of candidate LR, no longer dares to hope for the support of Nicolas Sarkozy, who is desperately waiting.