La Baule (France) (AFP)

How to collect? While continuing its offensive on the security front, the right launched Saturday in La Baule the thorny debate on the designation of its candidate - primary or not - for the presidential election of 2022.

Nearly 500 people were gathered for these summer universities of the Republicans of Loire-Atlantique, the first stage of a return to school where the right, carried by municipal authorities having consolidated its territorial anchoring, intends to turn the page of the rout of 2017.

"The Right and the Republicans are alive and well!" the boss of the Loire-Atlantique federation, Franck Louvrier, immediately welcomed.

Key guest of this university before the national meeting of LR at Port-Marly (Yvelines) on September 4 and 5, the head of senators LR Bruno Retailleau blasted "the bloody summer which is ending".

"Emmanuel Macron is not capable of bringing order back to France because he made other choices than that of order and security," he added, denouncing the "established link" between "massive immigration" and increase in delinquency.

"We must save this country, we are in a bad way, in a form of decadence that maddens me", MEP Nadine Morano told the audience (on the phone), in the wake of the recent right-wing offensive on these regal themes.

But twenty months before the presidential election, the delicate question of the incarnation was invited into the debate, while the Republicans have not yet found their candidate.

The president of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) François Baroin, regularly mentioned, must clarify his intentions in the fall.

"Today nobody crushes the match, we have no natural candidate," assured the press Mr. Retailleau, whose statements in recent days have suggested that he could himself present himself to a primary.

- "Injuries" -

Three main options are possible for appointing a candidate: reserving the vote to members only (primary closed), extending it beyond the party (primary open) or restricting it to the leadership alone.

"We must find a method of deciding" without "this selection is done in the inter-self, the activists must be able to participate", argued Mr. Retailleau, pleading for "a designation process that is clear before Christmas "and" a designation before summer "next.

Senate President Gérard Larcher also called for "finding a tie-breaking system beyond party boundaries".

This would put dissident LRs like Xavier Bertrand or Valérie Pécresse back on track, who herself made her comeback on Saturday in Mennecy (Essonne) where she wanted to "raise the Republic".

Since 2015, LR's statutes provide for "a primary open to all citizens adhering to the values ​​of the movement".

But the 2017 episode, with the appointment of François Fillon, left traces in a party sensitive to divisions. "A bad memory for some of us," admitted Mr. Retailleau.

"The open primary of 2017 was intended to avoid a Lepéniste candidate in the second round. We saw the result," laughed Franck Louvrier.

"Having imitated the left led us to disaster and the injuries afterwards are very difficult to overcome," said Rachida Dati.

Republican President Christian Jacob does not hide his personal mistrust of this open primary.

In La Baule, the idea of ​​keeping this process seemed to have little acceptance among activists: "With an open primary, we dynamite the party from the inside!" Says Jean-Louis, who prefers to remain anonymous. "We need a closed primary, without the leftists distorting the results", according to Jean-François Cuignet, LR member and member of Sens commun.

Calling for the rally, Gérard Larcher launched a veiled warning on Saturday: "nothing would be worse than fratricidal competition in the first round of the presidential election", synonymous with a new defeat. According to him, "our family would not recover".

"I do not want to restart a machine to lose", abounded Mr. Retailleau, evoking "the risk of suicide" for the French right.

© 2020 AFP