Valérie Pécresse and LR launched the controversy over the absence of a French flag next to the European flag on January 1 under the Arc de Triomphe.
At the party, we explain that we absolutely must not see there a distance of the party vis-à-vis the EU.
The line of fracture on the European question on the right, less visible in recent years, is however old.
Four months before the presidential election, the political year - or rather the year of controversy - has started on the hats of wheels. Even on New Year's Eve, when Valérie Pécresse tweeted her indignation at seeing the European flag replacing the tricolor standard under the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, to mark the start of the French presidency of the European Union. The LR presidential candidate asked "solemnly on Emmanuel Macron to restore our tricolor next to that of Europe". And many political leaders, on the left or on the extreme right, to follow suit and demand outright the withdrawal of the European flag above the flame of the unknown soldier.
In the majority, who have made their European commitment a trademark, the opportunity is too good to put Valérie Pécresse, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour in the same bag.
They form "a merry-go-round in the rejection of the European institutions", tackled the government spokesman, Gabriel Attal on Tuesday.
The exit of the philosopher marked on the right Luc Ferry, Minister of National Education under the second mandate of Jacques Chirac, was more surprised.
On LCI, he said he was "dismayed" by the controversy and LR's attitude: "In principle we are pro-European, not anti-European.
"
"We are pro-European"
Are the big party of the French right and its candidate for the Elysee Palace turning eurosceptics? Not so fast !, they say at LR. "We are pro-European", proclaims the MEP and spokesperson for Valérie Pécresse, Agnès Evren. The elected representative sees as proof the recent column published in
Le Monde
in which the candidate defends "the need for a powerful Europe, reconciled with sovereignty, the defense of jobs, our agriculture, our culture and our values yes Europe can be improved, but more necessary than ever ”.
On the form, Agnès Evren ensures that it is not a strategy to dredge a more right-wing electorate, even sovereignist, perhaps tempted by a Zemmour vote: "There are no longer irreconcilable rights on the 'Europe. Valérie Pécresse perfectly embodies the synthesis of the right, and she is pro-European, ”says Agnès Evren.
This sovereignist fringe, it nevertheless exists in LR.
Within the very Europhile UDI, who chose to support Valérie Pécresse from the first round, we do not forget: "I have no doubts about the European commitment of the candidate, assures the president of the party of center right, Jean-Christophe Lagarde.
But other LR officials still do not understand that France alone will never have the power to resist China or the United States.
And that's why if Eric Ciotti had been nominated, we would not have supported him.
"
An old tradition
But Eric Ciotti still gathered 40% of LR activists during the second round of the investiture congress. “The European question has long been a fault line on the right. In the 1990s and 2000s, this even gave rise to splits, ”underlines Emmanuelle Reungoat, lecturer in political science at the University of Montpellier. Within Jacques Chirac's very Bonapartist RPR, the sovereignty fringe has long been represented by Philippe Séguin and Charles Pasqua, the latter leaving the party in view of the 1999 European elections. Even the very Europhile UDF of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has known his troubles: Philippe de Villiers, who split in 1994 and is now close to Eric Zemmour, comes from this center-right party.
For Emmanuelle Reungoat, also author of
Enquête sur les opponents à l'Europe
(Editions Le Bord de l'eau), "this heritage is still present today on the right", even if, for twenty years, it has become. made more discreet.
“From the creation of the UMP, in 2002, the sovereignist currents become very minority and the party becomes more clearly pro-European.
But it is necessary to spare the various electorates and adapt to the speeches of the adversaries, which makes one take symbolic positions.
Like - at random - a question of a flag on a famous monument.
An opportunist sovereignty
In recent years, the researcher has noted a shift in the discourse, which has become more sovereignist at LR again, "perhaps thanks to the success of the FN then the RN during the Europeans of 2014 and 2019". The campaign of the very Europhile Michel Barnier during the LR congress is perhaps proof of this. Several times European Commissioner, defender of the interests of the EU in the Brexit negotiations, he took everyone by surprise in the internal campaign by announcing his intention to go back on a part of the primacy of European law. "Maybe to hope for a national political career, you have to play between these two speeches", imagines Emmanuelle Reungoat.
Jean-Christophe Lagarde does not fear these bouts of eurosceptic fever from some of LR officials.
"They always end up following the leader," scribes the boss of the UDI.
"It's said a bit harshly, but it's not necessarily wrong," smiles researcher Emmanuelle Reungoat.
“There is a sovereignist electorate on the right, which caused the unexpected successes of Phillippe de Villiers and Charles Pasqua in the Europeans.
But these splits have always been lost and have been reduced to minority oppositions.
In this regard, career plans mean that it is in the interest of rallying to the position of the leader.
"
Society
Why is the European flag installed, then withdrawn under the Arc de Triomphe, so much the target of criticism?
Politics
Emmanuel "Macron has a problem with the history of France", estimates Valérie Pécresse
Flag
EU
Eric Ciotti
Presidential election 2022
Valerie Pécresse
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