Nicolas Bay, MEP of the National Rally and candidate for the regional elections in Normandy tackled Xavier Bertrand's candidacy on Europe 1.

He sees it as an "announcement effect" and doubts that the latter is able to disrupt the Macron / Le Pen duel.

He believes that he can at best steal a few votes from the current head of state. 

INTERVIEW

Is the National Gathering worried about Xavier Bertrand's candidacy for the 2022 presidential election?

On Europe 1, MEP RN Nicolas Bay believes that Marine Le Pen is the "only candidate who is really in a position both to gather very widely in the first round and to win in the second".

Xavier Bertrand represents according to him a "center-right candidate who looks like two drops of water in his political project to Emmanuel Macron".

"A small pebble in Emmanuel Macron's shoe"

"We see a lot of suitors. We even see people who have claims that are totally disproportionate to their possibilities of gathering," tackled Nicolas Bay.

"Xavier Bertrand is agitated all at once. He said he would wait to be elected to the Hauts de France regional council. There, he rushes to say that he will be a candidate in 2022," he said. . 

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He believes that the candidacy of Xavier Bertrand is not able to disrupt the match announced in the polls between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.

"I think he does not break anything at all and that he can possibly take a few votes from Emmanuel Macron, which is not necessarily to displease us", explains Nicolas Bay.

"It may be a small pebble in Emmanuel Macron's shoe. In no way a difficulty for us," he says again.

"It's an announcement effect"

According to him, "Xavier Bertrand's problem is the more general problem of his political family: the French do not clearly identify the differences they have with the head of state".

"They agree on globalized ultra liberalism, on mass immigration, on weakness with regard to Islamism. Xavier Bertrand in no way embodies a political break with Macron. I believe that it is an effect of announcement ", supports Nicolas Bay.

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According to him, the record of Xavier Bertrand, former minister and mayor of Saint-Quentin does not assure him "great credibility".

"He has never been on the front line in the fight against Islamism and Islamo-leftism," Nicolas Bay still judges.

"To conquer power, it is better to have a good balance sheet when you have exercised responsibilities, which is not really the case with our competitors today," he concludes.