Paris (AFP)
LR Michel Barnier, cited as a possible presidential candidate, will be "at the rendezvous" to carry a "collective" project in 2022, he said in an interview with Le Figaro on Thursday.
"I will be there", he answers laconically to those who wish to see him carry a project for the right in 2022, without however saying more.
He says he wants "to see if he can be useful to work for the unity of (his) political family", and while LR is "the first opposition force", he wants to "contribute strongly" to "embody" this "collective force".
"From July, I will propose, within LR, a political organization, to welcome those who want to join us around the ambition of making France the leading economic, ecological and European power in Europe in ten years" , adds the former European negotiator for Brexit.
He also believes that with his "Patriots and Europeans" working group, created in early 2021, "we have the backbone of a project capable of meeting the expectations of the French".
"In the same logic, I asked Daniel Fasquelle, associate of law and elected representative of Pas-de-Calais, mayor of Touquet, to kindly lead the work on a moratorium on immigration", idea proposed in May , and "to François Cornut-Gentille, deputy of Haute-Marne, to feed the work of Jean Leonetti concerning the mode of designation of our candidate" within LR, details Mr. Barnier.
While the polls credit him with 6 to 8% of voting intentions, Michel Barnier "observes that (they) are progressing while (he is) not a candidate".
Approving the process of appointing a right-wing candidate announced by the President of the Republicans Christian Jacob, he scratches the president (ex-LR) of the Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand, declared presidential candidate who says he "will be the candidate of the Republican right" in 2022.
"I do not believe that the time needs providential man or woman. No one today can win the presidential election on the right without the support of LR, the first movement in terms of local elected officials and activists and which is capable of financing a presidential campaign, ”underlines Mr. Barnier.
And to recommend to "privilege the collective work on the personal ambitions", whereas "the next president will have, to reconcile the French between them, to embody a collective force".
In an attempt to find their presidential candidate, who will be appointed "in November", The Republicans have announced that they will survey a panel of 15,000 people.
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