Saint-Raphaël (France) (AFP)
The general delegate of La République en Marche (LREM) Stanislas Guerini will ask the poorly placed candidates of his movement to withdraw in the second round of the next municipal elections "to beat the National Rally", he assured Saturday in Saint-Raphaël (Var).
"In the second round we have to say things very clearly. Our candidates, if they are placed in third position and therefore unable to beat the RN, I will ask them to withdraw or merge their list with that of the candidate best placed "to do so," said Guerini at a public meeting in a department where the far right generally scores very well.
"Nothing should leave a chance to win at the National Rally and we will take our responsibilities in the first as in the second round", added the deputy of the 3rd district of Paris, recalling "the founding fight waged against the National Rally" by his movement since its creation.
Mr. Guerini indicated that his movement was going to present in certain cities "candidates for renewal who are fighting against the system" but also, elsewhere, that he was going to "stand aside" so as not to do "figuration" or even , in a third case, that LREM was going to "assemble behind other progressive forces".
Present at this meeting with several other LREM elected representatives from the south of France, Brune Poirson, Secretary of State to the Minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition, denounced for his part the "lies that have the face of the truth "held by the RN, according to the elected representative of Carpentras (Vaucluse), where the far-right party launches in ambush behind a retired general.
In a press release published the day before this meeting, David Rachline, RN mayor of the neighboring town of Fréjus, had denounced a "gross diversionary move (...) in an attempt to make people forget the disastrous results of the policy of President Macron and his government".
The mayor of Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais) Steeve Briois lashed out: "the Young people with Macron seem to have mounted a pitiful stroke of com 'by going to slurp in the cities where the National Gathering carries out its best results".
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