INTERVIEW
More than four months after their historic setback in the European elections (8.48%), Republicans are struggling to bounce back into the French political landscape. How to turn a moribund party into a formation capable of achieving success in 2020 and 2021, before attempting to regain power in 2022? For Brice Hortefeux, former minister of Nicolas Sarkozy and guest of the Grand Rendez-vous Europe 1 / CNews / Les Echos, it is necessary that the party on the right meets three conditions.
First, "we must be united," according to Brice Hortefeux. And the MEP castigate "a period since 2012" in which the guests of the right-wing party took too many different positions. "The union is not the alignment of peas," he summarizes.
Baroin must turn "promise into hope"
"Second very important element, that we all understand that our goal should not be to be the best possible opposition, but the best possible alternation", nuance Brice Hortefeux. "There are lots of people for the best possible opposition, La France rebellious, the National Rally, but we must be the best possible alternation." The third element to reunite for the Republicans is to be "lucid on the situation of the government": "Our role must be to show what the government seeks to hide," defends the MEP.
What is the personality to best embody this rebound wanted by Brice Hortefeux? If he supports Christian Jacob for the presidency of the Republicans, the former minister sees in François Baroin who could best wear the colors of the Republicans: "François Baroin, it is 'the promise of the Dawn'. if he wishes, turn this promise into hope. "