While traveling in the Lot, Ms. Pécresse also spoke out for the inclusion of children with disabilities in schools and for increased power for municipalities who would like to ban the installation of wind turbines or photovoltaic parks.

The baguette at 29 cents "is a lure to attract customers to the hypermarket so that they buy other products there which are more expensive, because (Leclerc) has to find his way there. The problem is that the bakers only have their bread to sell," said Ms. Pécresse in Cahors.

"I understand, it's human that the French, with the rest to live that they have today, want to go to hypermarkets, but it's a civic gesture to go to bakeries," he said. she added, surrounded by pastry-bakery students from the Apprentice Training Center (CFA).

On January 11, Michel-Édouard Leclerc announced that he was freezing the price of baguette bread in the group's stores at 29 cents, for at least four months.

This announcement outraged the entire wheat industry, which denounced a "demagogic and value-destroying" campaign.

The Republican candidate, accompanied by deputies Aurélien Pradié and Véronique Louwagie, then went to Labastide-Murat, about thirty kilometers north of Cahors.

She spoke with associations, teachers and parents about the inclusion of children with disabilities, before joining a hundred local elected officials, then discussing some of her proposals.

Insisting on the status of specialized companions (Aesh), "key subject" for inclusive education, Ms. Pécresse wants them to be "better trained", that they have "real status, a real career".

On the disabled adult allowance, "it must be a personalized allowance (...) That is to say that if your husband or your wife earns a living, you must be able to keep your allowance", she said. supported.

She also wanted children with disabilities who have no inheritance "to be able to receive their last parent's survivor's pension all their life", after his death.

Valérie Pécresse (c), LR presidential candidate, visits a training center in Cahors, on January 19, 2022 in Lot Lionel BONAVENTURE AFP

Asked about the recent remarks of the far-right candidate Éric Zemmour, who denounced "the obsession with the inclusion" of children with disabilities and defended "specialized establishments" to educate them, Ms. Pécresse condemned "very unfortunate remarks" .

Regarding medical deserts, she proposed to oblige future general practitioners to do, from 2025, a last year of studies "entirely in a medical house in the deficient sectors".

They would practice like doctors, "with the ability to prescribe" and would be paid on a fee-for-service basis.

In terms of energy policy, "we must give power back to the municipalities, to the mayors" who would like to ban the installation of wind turbines or photovoltaic parks.

Finally, she felt that no class closure should take place without the mayor's agreement.

© 2022 AFP