LR had 148,862 subscribers up to date on Tuesday at midnight, the deadline to be able to vote at the congress which will appoint the candidate, from 1 to 4 December.
By way of comparison, they were 79,183 on September 25, during the previous congress which had decided on the method of nominating the candidate.
We are far from the more than 4 million people who voted in the first round of the 2016 primary. But it is a clear recovery for the party which, in disarray after several electoral defeats, had fallen to 60,000 members in 2019, after having totaled 237,000 to date of contribution five years ago.
At 30 euros for individual membership, this also represents a significant sum for a party engaged in recent years in a major debt reduction effort.
In recent weeks, the five candidates - Michel Barnier, Xavier Bertrand, Eric Ciotti, Philippe Juvin and Valérie Pécresse - have strongly encouraged their supporters to join in order to influence the vote.
From L to R: the candidates for the LR nomination for the presidential election, Michel Barnier, Valérie Pecresse, Philippe Juvin, Eric Ciotti and Xavier Bertrand, November 8, 2021 before their televised debate bertrand GUAY POOL / AFP
The whole question is to know who will benefit from this increase in the number of voters, some of whom may be less sensitive to the loyalty argument put forward by Michel Barnier.
Xavier Bertrand and Valérie Pécresse, who have just taken back their card after leaving the party in 2017 and 2018, aroused a certain reserve among some of the historical members of the Republicans.
© 2021 AFP