After the December 4 congress which appointed Valérie Pécresse as a candidate, the scenario seems to be written at best for a revamped right: the choice of a woman who creates surprise, a rallying message, and several encouraging polls.

The most noticed of these polls, Tuesday, gave Valérie Pécresse winner against Emmanuel Macron in the second round.

This is the first time that a right-wing candidate has appeared capable of qualifying for the second round and winning the presidential election.

"This is only the beginning", prudently estimated Tuesday Valérie Pécresse, who reads however in these polls "a desire for alternation, solutions for the country" and "it is we who embody them today" .

Even if many are calling for caution while waiting for this breakthrough to be confirmed, there is great relief in a party that has been out of power for ten years, and which is playing its survival as a large government formation in the next presidential election.

In the majority where the threat that the candidate could represent is closely monitored, an LREM executive puts "a mechanical sounding effect" into perspective.

"There is a + blast + effect in the fact that a woman represents us", affirmed Wednesday the number 2 of LR Annie Genevard, according to which Valérie Pécresse "will not let the breath fall" by surveying the field immediately.

"This may be the mistake made in 2016," added Ms. Genevard in an allusion to the vacation taken by François Fillon after his victory in the right-wing primary.

The LR vice-president of the National Assembly Annie Genevard in Paris, February 24, 2020 Ludovic MARIN AFP / Archives

As soon as she was appointed, Valérie Pécresse began her campaign on the hats of wheels by going to the stronghold of each of her beaten rivals to bring a rallying message.

One way to defuse the customary but deadly rifts on the right, which seemed ready to be reborn the day after the congress, when the other finalist of the primary Eric Ciotti tackled the winner.

The challenge of "doing"

Beginning his tour with the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, Valérie Pécresse promised him a "singular" place in his campaign, and considered resuming his proposal on the exemption of inheritance.

She then moved alongside Philippe Juvin on Tuesday and Michel Barnier on Thursday, before a joint public meeting with Xavier Bertrand on Friday in Lille.

In the meantime, the president of Ile-de-France also met on Tuesday the parliamentarians of a party that she left in 2019. "She told us to put energy, dynamism, to believe in it" , reported Wednesday the boss of deputies LR Damien Abad.

LR candidate for the 2022 French presidential election Valérie Pécresse (l) and Michel Barnier (c), unsuccessful ex-candidate for the right-wing primary arrive at the Ferropem de Chateau-Feuillet factory in La Léchère, Savoie, on December 9 2021 PHILIPPE DESMAZES AFP

With a program that promises to be busy from the start of the term, his stake "is to do, not to please. In a five-year term, the first six months are absolutely decisive," he explains.

The road is still long for the candidate who will have to bring together the social and centrist wing of the potential electorate, sensitive to the speech of Emmanuel Macron, and who could be seduced by the Horizons movement of ex-LR Edouard Philippe.

He will also have to retain the right wing of the electorate, tempted by Marine Le Pen, and who can be recognized in the observations made by Eric Zemmour.

Tuesday the party decided to clean up its ranks in the face of the temptation Zemmour, by withdrawing the function of vice-president from Guillaume Peltier after a tweet deemed too favorable to the far-right candidate.

Members of the Conservative Movement were also excluded, because of their displayed proximity to the polemicist.

LR deputy Guillaume Peltier at the "violet festival" in La Marolle-en-Sologne, in Loir-et-Cher, September 19, 2020 Guillaume SOUVANT AFP / Archives

A large meeting was to mark the start of the campaign on Saturday Porte de Versailles.

Covid requires, it was replaced by a meeting of party executives at Mutualité, with a speech by Valérie Pécresse in the afternoon.

© 2021 AFP