In an interview with the "JDD" the mayor of Troyes François Baroin indicated that he "will clarify his intentions in the fall" on the presidential election in 2022. At LR, some would see him become a tenant of the Élysée. 

Former Minister LR François Baroin, whom some in his party would see as a presidential candidate in 2022, said in the JDD that he "will clarify his intentions in the fall".

"I will clarify my intentions in the fall"

"The time is not for the presidential election. The lessons of the crisis must be learned, this is the priority for the French. Whatever my decision, I will clarify my intentions in the fall," said the president of the 'Association of Mayors of France in the Sunday Journal . The former minister must also publish a book on September 23 to feed "the debate of the ideas of (his) political family". "But the question of the incarnation is another subject. It is not that meeting," he said to the weekly.

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The "severe failure" of the first round of municipal elections for LREM

For François Baroin, the first round of the municipal elections was "a severe failure for the president's party", which showed his "complete lack of understanding of the need for proximity". "The first round, however, was a success for Les Républicains, who remain the first municipal political force. The right ends with a long cycle of defeats," added the mayor of Troyes. "This dynamic will consolidate the reconstruction of our party initiated by Christian Jacob, who knew how to bring together our natural allies," he said.

More autonomy for local authorities

The LREM militants "could not find what united them and this slow drift of the continents will lead to find a traditional political landscape: a popular right, strong of a new generation which obtained spectacular scores in the municipal elections" and " a left which reconstitutes a fairly wide arc ". He announced that the United Senate and Territories, which brings together regions, departments and municipalities, will take early July "a very strong initiative" in favor of a "great text of local freedoms". 

"We will ask for transfers of powers, means and staff to local authorities, and a modification of the Constitution, in particular of its article 72, to consecrate their fiscal and financial autonomy and their free administration", he details. Emmanuel Macron "must act to end an ultra-centralized scheme that has shown its helplessness during this crisis," said François Baroin. Regarding municipal alliances between LREM and LR, he believes that the LREM candidates "to try to exist, are forced to ally with those who beat them". "In chess, this is called a forced blow: either they disappear from the landscape, or they integrate a larger majority under the authority of republican mayors".