Paris (AFP)
LR number 2 Guillaume Peltier on Monday supports Xavier Bertrand in the presidential race, "the only one capable of winning the right" in 2022, judging that a primary would "lose five months" and generate "divisions" .
"So I decided to set an example, to give up myself any participation in a primary by strongly supporting, from today, the best placed among us, the only one capable of beating Emmanuel Macron and of to win the right: I bring my support to Xavier Bertrand ", he said in an interview with the Parisian, on the eve of a political office of LR during which the mayor of Antibes Jean Leonetti must present his tracks to decide between the right-wing presidential candidates.
"We can no longer afford to lose five months of primary and divisions. My line is the unity and victory of the right," urges Mr. Peltier, who calls for "to put personal ambitions aside" .
For him, "Xavier Bertrand embodies, like Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, popular France", and "he understood the three challenges of the presidential election: work and salaries in the face of the assistantship, authority in the face of Islam policy, the freedoms of our provinces in the face of Parisian centralism ".
Among other assets of Xavier Bertrand in the eyes of Guillaume Peltier: "he did not do the ENA, is not a high official", and "his dynamic is strong with already 20% of the voting intentions in the first round of the presidential "according to polls.
Also, "I respect those who want to engage in a primary but I tell them: + You are on the wrong track, we do not have the right to engage a machine to lose and divide, 280 days before the election presidential + ", he insists.
After their re-elections in the regional elections, the ex-LR Xavier Bertrand, president of Hauts-de-France and declared presidential candidate, the ex-LR, president of Libres!
and from the Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse, who will decide "after the summer" on a possible candidacy, and LR Laurent Wauquiez, widely re-elected at the head of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, are more than ever in competition to represent their camp in 2022.
The boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau for his part said his wish to participate in a primary.
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