A head-to-head unpublished Emmanuel Macron confronts the Republicans boss Laurent Wauquiez Thursday in Valencia, for its third meeting of the great debate born of the crisis of "yellow vests".
With about sixty elected officials . After their half-hour tête-à-tête, they will join a lunch-debate with about sixty elected officials from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region: the presidents of the associations of mayors of the 12 departments, the parliamentarians of the Drôme and the president of the County Council, Marie-Pierre Mouton (LR).
They rarely crossed paths . Emmanuel Macron and Laurent Wauquiez, two forty-year-olds of the same political generation, have never spoken officially since Laurent Wauquiez took the head of the Republicans in December 2017. Previously, they had rarely crossed paths. They meet at a time when both appear weakened at four months of the European elections, the first electoral test of the five-year period. The head of state by two months of crisis "yellow vests" which he hopes to come out with the big debate. And Laurent Wauquiez because he struggles to assert himself as the main opponent to Emmanuel Macron, facing competition from Marine Le Pen (RN) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI).
Prevent certain subjects from being "under the carpet". If he said January 16 want the Republicans to participate in the big debate, Laurent Wauquiez said Tuesday that he heard, on his way to Valencia, to avoid being "put under the carpet the subjects that led to major tensions in which fell the country ". Quoting "the situation of retirees for whom no durable guarantee has been obtained, the weight of taxes that hangs over the middle classes and territories that no longer want to be despised as they were on the 80 km / h" .
The "yellow vests" of the Drôme very mobilized . In Valencia, Emmanuel Macron arrives in the poorest department of the region, the Drôme, where the "yellow vests" remain very mobilized. Valencia saw the parade on January 5, 3.000 demonstrators, almost as much as in Paris (3.500) according to the official figures. "The coming of Macron, I do not expect anything, listen and that's it: this national debate is more a campaign for Europeans than anything else, it is to put the people to sleep" comments Dominique Bernier, 60, who runs a Facebook page devoted to "yellow vests" in Drôme / Ardèche. "The member of the LREM Drome, Mireille Clapot, she assured that she would be the voice of some claims protesters such as the "desire for tax justice" or the recognition of the white vote.