Paris (AFP)
"I will be the candidate of the republican right" for the presidential election of 2022, assured Figaro Magazine the president (ex-LR) of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand, while his former party is counting on a large poll to try to release his candidate.
"For the presidential election, as for the Hauts-de-France, I am determined, prepared, and I have a sense of the general interest pegged to the body," he said in an interview posted online on Friday, by lambasting any primary system.
"I fully subscribe to the spirit of the Fifth Republic, the meeting of a man with the French. For 2017, we had chosen another path, the primary. We have seen, alas, the result," a added Mr. Bertrand, who had formalized his candidacy for the presidential election at the end of March and assured that he would not submit to a primary.
The Republicans announced Wednesday that they would survey 15,000 supporters to find a personality to "rally" for the presidential election.
"Either we have a candidate who crushes the match, or we will be on a selection process that we will prepare beforehand," said LR president Christian Jacob.
In his interview, Mr. Bertrand assures us that "the regional election and the presidential election are, in reality, the same four-round election".
"My project is to rebuild our country, and this will not happen without regaining control in the face of insecurity, without redressing the social injustices which afflict those who work hard. I want to give them hope", adds- he does.
Believing that "putting an end to downgrading" is "a national imperative", he assures us that "justice also requires a fair reward for work. This will be, along with industrial development, the axis of my economic policy".
On security, the former minister of Nicolas Sarkozy promises "a five-year programming law for security and justice, adopted before the end of 2022".
He also tackles Emmanuel Macron who according to him "lives in a parallel reality" and "is the spectator of his own five-year term" on security issues.
© 2021 AFP