Paris (AFP)
Former Brexit negotiator and potential presidential candidate Michel Barnier (LR) pleaded Monday for the "unity" of the right for 2022, on the eve of a meeting of several possible suitors.
"We have this duty of unity. Nobody would forgive us for disunity and none of us would emerge unscathed from disunity," said on Europe 1 the former minister of Jacques Chirac, for whom a primary is not "not the only solution".
About the ex-LR Xavier Bertrand, who has already announced his candidacy for the Elysee and should not participate in the LR meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Mr. Barnier estimated that "none of those who want the support of this political family would not recover from not participating, from being outside this collective game ".
"We must find a method. The primaries are not the only solution. I hope that we can do without it thanks to a collective work between us. We can build a team of France (…), find a leader of 'team, without necessarily going towards a period of quarrels, divisions, one-upmanship as were the primaries in the past, "argued Mr. Barnier.
The head of LR Christian Jacob, the president of the Senate Gérard Larcher and the mayor of Antibes Jean Leonetti, who has been entrusted with a mission on the "process of bringing together" potential candidates in 2022, must meet on Tuesday in Paris the latter to discuss the rest of the process.
Should participate in this meeting, in addition to Michel Barnier, the leader of senators LR Bruno Retailleau, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region Laurent Wauquiez and the mayor of La Garenne-Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine) Philippe Juvin, all LR, as well as the president of the Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse, who left LR.
The party has set September 25 as the deadline for reaching an agreement.
If this hypothesis does not materialize, a congress will decide in the fall of a tie-breaking process, despite the reluctance of the management on the primary.
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