Paris (AFP)

What to do after the affront of the surprise agreement in the Paca region between the outgoing LR Renaud Muselier and LREM?

The Republicans meet on Tuesday their strategic committee to try to counter the trap of asphyxiation.

After the announcement by Prime Minister Jean Castex on Sunday of the withdrawal from the LREM list in the Paca region in favor of the LR list, the President of the Republicans Christian Jacob withdrew his inauguration from the outgoing regional president Renaud Muselier.

LR, aware of the risk of a stranglehold between LREM and the RN which awaits him as 2022 approaches, could take new measures during his strategic committee on Tuesday morning.

"We will see how the situation is going to get by, the condemnation is really unanimous among us", underlined on RTL Gilles Platret, LR candidate in Burgundy-Franche-Comté.

Monday, Renaud Muselier tried to calm the spirits by specifying that there would be on his list no "holder of national mandates, that it is the ministers and the deputies" - whereas the Secretary of State Sophie Cluzel there had announced his presence on Monday in the Opinion.

"No one can doubt my loyalty to my political family", of which "I will ask for further support" on Tuesday, Mr. Muselier said.

Will this be enough for LR executives, who are waiting for Mr. Muselier on a firm footing?

An exclusion of this tenor of the right, who entered the RPR at a young age, of which he was general secretary, loyal to Jacques Chirac and friend of Christan Jacob, seems difficult to envisage, and many believe that having withdrawn the nomination is enough.

"By making his choice, Renaud Muselier has taken leave of the de facto party, no need to embark on procedures that interest no one", insists the deputy of Hauts-de-Seine Constance Le Grip.

From Sunday, the boss of LR deputies Damien Abad assured not to believe "in a system of exclusions. We have already experienced that (...) and we have borne the burden for a long time".

There remains, for the party, the solution to launch out anyway in the electoral battle.

"We will have to decide in the coming hours (...) whether or not we present a stamped list LR", indicated the president of the national council of the party Annie Genevard on LCI.

- "Anathemas" -

Monday morning, several elected officials pleaded for.

"Logic dictates that we put together a list to wear our own colors and our convictions," said senator leader LR Bruno Retailleau.

The mayor of Cannes David Lisnard had already defended Sunday the idea of ​​a "clear, new and fresh list".

Here too, the question is complex.

First of all, there is the calendar, since the deadline for submitting lists is May 17.

"It's obviously very complicated to do, but if the challenge can be met, I believe it must," said MEP François-Xavier Bellamy.

Beyond timing, the question is delicate in a party that has paid dearly for its divisions in the past.

"I do not want anathemas to be added to anathemas," warned former European Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

For Annie Genevard, "we must measure the assets and the risks", in a region where the RN, led by Thierry Mariani, is given the lead in the first round, but preceded in the second by Renaud Muselier.

"The advantage of such a solution would be that of clarity", but "by presenting a list, we would shake up an already very confused situation a little more", she adds, the bickering between parties being able to push the voters to abstention or to vote RN.

An elected official says: "It will depend a lot on the protagonists, whether they want to go or not" and "for the moment it is shared".

Difficult to imagine in any case that LR does not react: "The party which is ours, and which defends values ​​having nothing to do with Macronism, cannot accept to be cuckolded by Mr. Muselier", estimates Gilles Platret - who himself made an alliance in his region with DLF, the party of Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.

At RN, Sébastien Chenu does not fail to be indignant at the "hacking" in Paca.

According to him, the LR, "at the crossroads", "must" now "choose" between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.

© 2021 AFP