Paris (AFP)

Persistent fog in the Paca region.

By maintaining her candidacy for the regional ones on Friday, LREM Secretary of State Sophie Cluzel puts the pressure on LR Renaud Muselier after a week of psychodrama around a possible alliance.

"Discussions are continuing with Muselier," a government source told AFP, after Sophie Cluzel, according to this source, "raised the doubt" on Friday morning about her intentions.

"I am a candidate and the presidential majority will be represented in the first round", announced, after a week of silence, the Secretary of State for People with disabilities on franceinfo, while stressing that her list is "always open" to " all democratic and progressive forces ".

A new appeal from the foot to the outgoing LR president of the region Renaud Muselier who, under pressure from the leadership of his party, had finally refused on Tuesday any "agreement with En Marche" in the face of the threat of a victory by the candidate of the National Rally , Thierry Mariani.

The response of the candidate LR was intended to be firm Friday: "The + re-candidacy + of S. Cluzel, after a week of endless soap opera, is a narrow logic of the political apparatus!", He tweeted.

But he also adds: "I remain faithful to a logic of gathering, with personalities 100% committed to Our region first, around our assessment and our program".

- "End of ambiguities" -

The announcement on Sunday by Prime Minister Jean Castex himself of the withdrawal from the LREM list of Ms. Cluzel in favor of Mr. Muselier's list had the effect of a bomb at LR, lambasting a political coup piloted from the 'Elysium.

After having weighed the investiture of Mr. Muselier, LR finally decided on Tuesday to give him his "support", having obtained the assurance that there would be neither minister nor LREM parliamentarian on his list.

The Prime Minister "received a slap which, in my opinion, had resonances all the way to the Élysée", then congratulated the president of LR Christian Jacob.

But the fire is not extinguished.

In the process, the mayors of Toulon Hubert Falco and of Nice Christian Estrosi announced their departure from LR, accused of curling up on himself.

And the vagueness remains, ten days before the deadline for the submission of lists.

Mr. Muselier, who again indicated on Wednesday that he could welcome Ms. Cluzel on his list if she resigned from her post, still defends a logic of rallying.

Like Sophie Cluzel, who emphasizes that "the presidential majority" includes people "on the right", "from the center right, the center left and the left", and said to speak with MM.

Estrosi and Falco.

LREM also continues to put pressure on LR by congratulating itself on having put the right-wing party in front of its responsibilities, one year before the presidential election.

It is for LR "the end of ambiguities", estimated Friday the Minister of Housing Emmanuelle Wargon on Public Senate.

"The masks are falling", abounds the general delegate of LREM Stanislas Guerini, welcoming on Radio Classique the decisions of MM.

LR's Estrosi and Falco, while others like Eric Ciotti "go straight with the far right".

- "Distressing maneuvers" -

At LR, we still show the muscles.

"No, Mr. President, not everyone is for sale", retort Friday in an open letter published by Le Figaro seven personalities of the party, including the MEP François-Xavier Bellamy, two vice-presidents, Olivier Marleix and Virginie Duby-Muller as well as the deputy of Vaucluse Julien Aubert and the mayor of Cannes David Lisnard.

They denounce the "distressing political maneuvers" of Emmanuel Macron to "try to do away with the only possible alternative other than the RN".

In Paca, the RN intends to take advantage of what its candidate Thierry Mariani calls the "compromises" of Renaud Muselier with the presidential majority.

The president of Debout la France Nicolas Dupont Aignan, who also calls LR voters to join him, denounces: "I do not understand anything anymore (...), I am appalled by these little soups".

Meanwhile, on the left, the ecologist Jean-Laurent Felizia launched his campaign in Paca at the head of an alliance of green and "progressive" forces, with EELV and the PS, but without the rebels, furious to be excluded "for no reason" according to LFI MEP Manuel Bompard.

© 2021 AFP