Louis de Raguenel 8:17 a.m., September 20, 2021

Xavier Bertrand, presidential candidate for the right-wing camp but who refuses to submit to the primary, meets Nicolas Sarkozy this Monday morning.

And many subjects are on the table, from the cancellation of the "contract of the century" to work, through the strategy of the president of Hauts-de-France.

DECRYPTION

After Michel Barnier and Valérie Pécresse, Xavier Bertrand, also a presidential candidate for the right but without going through the primary box, is received this Monday morning by Nicolas Sarkozy.

If we should not expect from this meeting any official support from the former president, the latter making his preference known a little at the last moment, the photo is always good to take.

On the right in fact, it can never hurt to pose with Nicolas Sarkozy when you are in the countryside.  

But above all, the president of Hauts-de-France wishes to explain his strategy to the former head of state, with whom relations have not always been fluid.

Xavier Bertrand wants to talk to him about the issue of work, a topic he knows well, after having been twice in charge of this issue in the government. 

A very sarkozystic week for Bertrand

Another subject on the menu of the meeting: the consequences of the fiasco of the cancellation of submarine contracts with Australia.

Xavier Bertrand, who pleaded for an emergency meeting of heads of state of NATO member countries, wants to talk about it with Nicolas Sarkozy for a very specific reason.

It is indeed the former president who made France return to the command of this organization in 2007. 

Finally, the two men will see each other again this week, Wednesday, on the occasion of the presentation of the Legion of Honor to Natacha Bouchard, mayor of Calais. Chance is therefore doing things well for Xavier Bertrand with this very sarkozyste week. A display that will not hurt him but which risks, once again, to irritate the candidates for the primary of the Republicans, of which the president of Hauts-de-France is no longer a part.