Paris (AFP)

The President of the Republicans (LR) Christian Jacob on Wednesday deemed "aberrant" the proposal of the LR mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi for a rapprochement between the right and Emmanuel Macron by 2022.

"His proposal is fundamentally aberrant," Mr. Jacob told AFP, stressing that it occurs "at a time when Emmanuel Macron is unable to propose a structural reform", and "where it is clear that the + at the same time + is in fact synonymous with immobility ".

"It's fashionable to hit the parties, but Christian Estrosi was happy to have LR's support in the municipal elections," he added.

The mayor of Nice, frequently described as "Macron-compatible", launched a paving stone in the pond Monday by proposing, "not to spoil all the talents of the right", to make "an agreement with Emmanuel Macron so that he either our common presidential candidate ".

In Le Parisien, the president of LR clarified that at regional and departmental level, "the evidence is that there can be no agreement with En Marche" because "the demonstration of the failure of these agreements were made at the municipal level ".

Asked about the absence for the moment of right-wing candidate, Mr. Jacob called to "continue to work on the bottom".

"No one would understand that in the midst of an economic and health crisis, our only concern is to choose a candidate," he said, calling for "not to despise the electoral meetings" to come.

“The ideal situation would be to have a natural candidate” emerging.

"Otherwise, it will take a tie-breaker", he repeated, while the debate on the primary has returned to the right pending the decision of François Baroin, who must clarify his intentions in the fall.

In recent days several other tenors of the right, such as Xavier Bertrand, Valérie Pécresse and Bruno Retailleau, have laid the groundwork for a possible primary.

But the primary is according to Mr. Jacob "a machine used to highlight what divides us".

"Let's instead highlight what brings us together," he said.

Two days before the "Rendez-vous de la jeunesse" at Port-Marly, he welcomed the fact that LR was "capable of bringing together a thousand young people for two days", and said his wish "that by Next spring we will structure a large movement of young people with governance, a budget, which is autonomous ".

© 2020 AFP