• Seven months before the election, the right has still not nominated its presidential candidate, nor the method of nomination.

  • LR activists will have to decide on September 25 whether they opt for a primary or a congress to nominate their champion.

  • The participation - or not - of Xavier Bertrand in these polls remains one of the problems to be solved.

"My right-wing counterpart must sleep badly at night because, seven months before the election, he still does not know to whom he will lend money for his campaign ..." A few days before a green primary which presented itself under the best auspices, the boss of EELV Julien Bayou was ironic about the mistakes of the Republicans and their boss.

But after long months of procrastination, Christian Jacob said Wednesday that two tie-breaking methods will finally be voted on by activists to choose their presidential candidate.

However, many questions remain unanswered.

  • Primary semi-open or semi-closed?

    • "Christian Jacob had initially bet everything on François Baroin, but with his renunciation, he found himself" quarrelsome ", as the Unknowns would say, ironically a framework of the movement. To skip the primary, something more appetizing had to be offered. But when things are not clear, that you do not have a strong direction, it comes back to the basic mechanisms, that is to say the vote ”.

    Activists will therefore have to choose between "two methods of designation", explained Christian Jacob in a message to his family on Wednesday. First option: a vote open to right-wing supporters. “We won't call it primary, because the name is charred on the right, but it will look terribly like it. However, there will be safeguards to be defined to prevent the ballot from being parasitized as in 2016, ”assures Gilles Platret, LR spokesperson. A reference to the polls which estimate that 15% of voters from the left had participated in the primary from the right and the center. “The other option is even simpler. The activists alone keep the hand to designate their candidate in congress. There will therefore be a vote, but the electorate has to be defined.A political bureau should ratify these provisions on September 22 before the members vote for one or the other solution on September 25.

    • With or without Bertrand, what to do with Zemmour?

    By giving the choice of the primary to the militants, LR is removing a thorn in his side.

    But an elephant still roams the room.

    How to convince Xavier Bertrand to participate?

    Despite the rapprochement with his former family in recent days, the boss of Hauts-de-France continues to sweep away any participation in a primary.

    “We have two months to find a path of convergence.

    Xavier Bertrand never said no to participation in a congress, so it should not be excluded, ”still hopes Damien Abad, the boss of LR deputies and support of the elected representative of the North.

    "No one is a suicide bomber, and Xavier will not be either", also wants to believe Gilles Platret.

    The Republicans will also have to deal with the Eric Zemmour case.

    The polemicist, always closer to a presidential candidacy, would he have the right to participate in the right-wing ballot, as requested by some elected LR?

    " Of course not !

    Zemmour is close to Marine Le Pen, he does not belong to the Republican right, ”says Damien Abad.

    The conditions of participation in the ballot - 250 sponsorships of elected officials - should end this debate for good.

    • How about this poll?

    There remains the question of the survey, which came out of Christian Jacob's hat before the summer.

    Several questions are put to activists to determine which candidate has the greatest strengths: who is best placed to pass the first round?

    And to beat Emmanuel Macron?

    Initially, the management hoped more or less secretly that this vast survey launched among 15,000 supporters would make it possible to identify a "natural candidate".

    But by enacting the principle of a congress or a primary, is it still useful?

    "Some hope that Bertrand comes first on all items to kill the match," hissed an LR executive.

    “It's a photograph of public opinion on the right, to draw the best profile for the Republican right.

    It will be a decision aid ”, answers Gilles Platret.

    The results will be released on September 22.

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    • Eric Zemmour

    • Primary

    • Presidential election

    • Law

    • The Republicans (France)

    • Christian jacob