Covid-19 Pandemic: The Right in Ambush

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By: Anne Soetemondt Follow

It is a health, economic and social cataclysm. Will it also be political? If the virus has changed presidential doctrine, it could also reshuffle the cards within the parties. With a big question: what consequences on the right for 2022?

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One certainty, the coronavirus crisis puts three right-wing regional presidents in the foreground: Valérie Pecresse (Ile-de-France), Xavier Bertrand (Hauts-de-France) and Laurent Wauquiez (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes). All three very active in producing, distributing masks and preparing for deconfinement.

"  It is their golden age because they make up for the shortcomings of the state,  " said MP Robin Reda. "  They undoubtedly score points,  " adds a party official, for whom "  they embody solutions in the face of a president who will one day have to account  ".

But if this crisis shines the spotlight on certain right-wing personalities, others shine by their absence, including François Baroin. Many also wonder: "  But where is it ?  "Returned to the proceedings thanks to his friend Christian Jacob, the president of the association of mayors of France would however have"  a card to play  ", estimates an influential deputy because the mayors are on the front line. And yet, hardly a word for the one who had to save the right. "  That does not reassure us about his desire,  " snarls a disappointed, while a party connoisseur speaks of a "  unicorn of the right  ": "  Pretty from afar, but never there.  A connoisseur who recalls that François Baroin also has a thorn in his side: he is one of those who argued for the holding of the first round of municipal elections, two days before the start of confinement. A sign that things are moving: the meeting in Nîmes, which was to serve as a launching pad at the end of August, is maintained, but must "  change shape  ".

Are we to understand that, thanks to the pandemic, things are getting better right ?

Obviously, it is too early to answer this question. Because the economic crisis is "  before us  ", some insist and because it could benefit "  environmentalists  ", remind others. But there are certain signs.

The reference of Emmanuel Macron during his last speech to a government of national unity shows that the right remains a coveted political space. "  Its objective is that we do not have a candidate in 2022, we must above all not give in to these sirens,  " decrypts a young deputy. Another illustration of a party in full reflection: the less and less concealed appetite of deputies for Xavier Bertrand, who nevertheless left the party. "  He has the right mix between action and criticism of the government,  " said an elected official who particularly tasted the "  yes to the sacred union against the Covid-19  ", but not to "  national union  " of Xavier Bertrand. "  This makes him no longer an enemy, but a recourse for 2022.  "

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• Coronavirus
• Confinement
• French politics