The LR primary in the sights of macronia
Audio 02:52
The candidates for the Les Républicains (LR) party primary for the French presidential election of 2022. From left to right: Éric Ciotti, Valérie Pécresse, Michel Barnier, Philippe Juvin and Xavier Bertrand.
In Paris, November 14, 2021, before a televised debate.
© THOMAS SAMSON / AFP
By: Valérie Gas Follow
2 min
On the right, the campaign is in full swing between the five candidates vying to wear the colors of the Republicans in the French presidential election.
LR activists will vote in early December 2021. This election to designate the champion of the right is scrutinized with great attention from the side of the macronie.
Advertising
Ministers, deputies, advisers ... in the majority, everyone has their opinion on the Republican primary. Even if some pretend not to be interested in it, as soon as we insist a little the banter fuse.
"They are organizing a closed congress where the militants vote to elect people who are no longer in the party
", amused a few times ago an official of LaRem from the right, referring to Valérie Pécresse and Xavier Bertrand who had left their political training but have since decided to take back their card. Everything is good to denigrate this exercise of appointing a presidential candidate. "
It's a senatorial election their thing
“, Adds the same elected with a touch of irony when a minister affirms that the LR made a“
monumental error
”by engaging in an internal primary.
A deputy En Marche even becomes sarcastic by declaring that they "
present as a triumph to have 150,000 voters
", they who had made vote more than four million French in 2016 to designate François Fillon.
Is there a more formidable LR candidate for Emmanuel Macron?
There is one in any case which concentrates the most aggressive critics, Xavier Bertrand. It is "
Sarkozy without genius, there is only vulgarity
", asserts a historical macronist from the left who still believes that it is he who will win. A former strategist of the 2017 campaign who also believes that Xavier Bertrand can win the LR primary says that "
his popular side is overplayed
", a way of saying "
not even afraid",
adding that all that Xavier Bertrand offers is Macron has already done it, or it is "
infeasible
". Which shows that everything he says is scrutinized. A minister concedes all the same: "
He has the niaque, he is harder than Pécresse
".
On Valérie Pécresse precisely and Michel Barnier, the one who seems to have the favors of the LR militants, there are fewer scathing comments but one observation: "
They are right
," perhaps under the Zemmour effect.
And a hope, expressed by a minister: "
This opens a political field to Emmanuel Macron
".
Because all seem convinced, it is on the right that the election will be played out.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
French politics
Presidential France 2022
Emmanuel Macron