Paris (AFP)
MP LR Christian Jacob, candidate for the presidency of his party, refused any "reference" to the far right on immigration or security and any alliance with it, in an interview with the conservative newspaper Current Values to be released Thursday.
"I have a basic premise: I do not get along with people whose goal is to see us disappear, it's the only goal of the extreme right." It's also Emmanuel's goal Macron, "said the head of the Republican deputies, who is the favorite in the ballot for the presidency of the party to be held Sunday.
"I think that the right wing is strong when it is itself, so do not wait for me to look for references to the far right on security or immigration topics and references at Macron. for the economy, "he added.
Mr. Jacob was answering a question on a recent poll on right-wing voters, in which a subsample of LR supporters said they were 57% open to a rapprochement with the National Gathering.
"Society is evolving, the political class is evolving, but that should not prevent us from having very clear principles and convictions," he added, defending Republicans as a party of "innovation" and " the search for progress ".
Former far-right French MEP Marion Maréchal, who judges the RN "not enough" to win, considers that the collapse of LR in the May European elections (8.5% of the vote) is "an opportunity" for " anchor in a common future "right and far right. She had taken part in a "right-wing convention" at the end of September marked by a violent intervention by polemicist Eric Zemmour being investigated for "public provocation to discrimination, hatred or violence".
While the two other candidates for the presidency of LR, Julien Aubert and Guillaume Larrivé, defended the right to the free expression of Eric Zemmour, Christian Jacob considered that it was "not (his) compass".
"He went to a higher notch on theses that I can not follow or endorse.For as much, I have never been favorable to the police of thought and I will not be more so today than yesterday, even if he marries theses which are not mine and which will never be mine, "he added.
© 2019 AFP