The LR candidate and the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, who tore between 2017 and 2019, posted their agreement in Haute-Loire this Friday. The former party president must play a “pillar role” in the campaign.
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Through the masks, we guess their smiles. Valérie Pécresse and Laurent Wauquiez are side by side during a visit to a nursing home in Dunieres (Haute-Loire) to display their found union, Friday, January 21. When the Republican presidential candidate approaches journalists, it is to speak well of the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region: “It is obviously very important to make this trip in the company of a great regional president, Laurent Wauquiez, who has literally transformed his region and who has made territorial equality the red thread of his action.
But very quickly, the past dissensions between the two figures of the right resurface by the voice of a journalist who reminds Valérie Pécresse of her spade targeting Les Républicains, a“political party padlocked from within, in its organization, but also in its ideas”. It was in 2019, when leaving LR, hitherto chaired by Laurent Wauquiez. The president of the Ile-de-France region brushes the question aside: “It was after, after Laurent left, it had nothing to do! You are completely distorting my words.” It was indeed June 5, 2019 … three days after the resignation of Laurent Wauquiez from the presidency of the party.
The president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region wants to make things clear: if he welcomes the presidential candidate, it is because they are on the same wavelength today: “It is the symbol of my support and my total commitment alongside Valérie. Valérie made a very important start to the campaign which consisted of turning the pages of the past.”
“The challenge for us is the presidential election, it is to know what we want to offer the French to rebuild alongside Valérie.”
Laurent Wauquiezat franceinfo
“I will be totally committed alongside him in this campaign because it is the only thing that interests me”, adds Laurent Wauquiez, recalling: “The stake for us is the presidential election”. In particular, he has the mission of uniting elected officials around the candidate. He will hold a “pillar role”, insists Valérie Pécresse, before rushing into a car.