LR number 2 Guillaume Peltier on Monday supported Xavier Bertrand to be the right-wing presidential candidate.

On Europe 1, party vice-president Olivier Marleix qualifies this decision as "respectable".

But he insists on the need to give voice to activists and members. 

INTERVIEW

The presidential race on the right accelerated on Monday.

On the eve of an LR political office during which the mayor of Antibes Jean Leonetti must present his tracks to identify a candidate, the number 2 of the party Guillaume Peltier has already chosen his champion.

He indeed gave his support to Xavier Bertrand, and this while the president of Hauts-de-France left LR in 2017. Asked about this support from a party executive, Olivier Marleix, vice-president of LR, the qualifies as "respectable".

But, he adds immediately, that does not end the discussions. 

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Guillaume Peltier's decision is "a personal choice", considers Olivier Marleix.

This choice, he adds, "is legitimate and respectable".

On the other hand, "I do not believe that this is enough to close the debate and the discussion", he recalls.

But doesn't Guillaume Peltier's position within the party make this support particularly strong?

"I do not count the numbers at LR", evades the guest from Europe 1. 

A natural candidate?

"For now, this is not the case"

"Our party is rich in other potential candidates, so it is necessary that this time of choice which we owe to our members and our militants can take place", explains Olivier Marleix.

But while LR is divided around the opportunity to organize a primary, wouldn't it be easier to identify a natural candidate?

"What would make a natural candidate emerge would be that the other candidates recognize him as such. For the moment this is not the case," said the deputy for Eure-et-Loire. 

"Allow the greatest number of candidates to participate"

"I do not exclude that Xavier Bertrand could be the candidate, but that would necessarily be at the end of a collective game which has not yet taken place," insists Olivier Marleix. 

What form could this collective game take then? "I hope that the tie-breaker system which will be adopted will be a sufficiently broad system to allow the greatest number of our talents to participate", says Olivier Marleix. With Xavier Bertrand therefore, even if the latter continues to ensure that he will not participate in any primary? "I do not imagine that he can stay outside this logic", wants to believe the vice-president of LR.