Paris (AFP)
The President of the Senate Gérard Larcher defended Tuesday the idea of a primary on the right, "only method" in his eyes to "decide" between the presidential candidates of 2022.
"When there is a plurality of candidacies, I know only one method, it is to decide between these candidates", "a process validated by the political office of the LR", he affirmed on France Inter.
“I'm not a fanatic to be a primary fanatic, but I don't know of any other process when there are legitimate candidates,” he continued.
The president of the Senate says in Le Figaro wanting a "primary rally", which "must be a real debate of ideas" and "appeased".
Mr. Larcher recalled on France Inter that The Republicans had "a calendar, a method".
"We will choose a candidate, and then we will support them."
LR must decide on the organization or not of a primary at a congress on September 25, with the aim of appointing its candidate at the end of November.
Mr. Larcher said he was convinced that the tie-breaker would "clear up".
On Monday, the former Minister of Justice Rachida Dati had asked the Republicans to "close the hypothesis of the primary", regretting that his party does not learn "from (his) experience and (his) past mistakes concerning the primary: hatreds, divisions, slingshots ".
As for Xavier Bertrand, who refuses to participate in a primary, Gérard Larcher recalled that "everyone agrees, Xavier Bertrand first, so that there is only one candidate".
In addition to Mr. Bertrand, are also candidates on the right Valérie Pécresse, Michel Barnier, Philippe Juvin, Denis Payre and Eric Ciotti.
On the other hand, if this were not the case at the end of the year, "we will put each other in front of their responsibility," said Mr. Larcher.
The President of the Senate dismissed the idea that the polemicist Eric Zemmour participates in a primary of the right: "For me, it is not".
"We do not share the same values, the same outlook on society".
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