Expected with Laurent Wauquiez in the small town of Dunières then in Puy-en-Velay, the LR candidate must, according to her program, talk about education.

But everyone will especially watch for words and signs of rapprochement.

It is "obviously to display a message of unity and internal gathering", assures the entourage of the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

"It's going very well between them, the proof by image and sound", promises that of the candidate.

This is the first time that the candidate, who had paid Laurent Wauquiez a private visit after his investiture in early December, appeared with him during a public outing.

Because if the candidate has methodically undertaken to visit each of her supporters – from Eric Ciotti at the beginning of December to Aurélien Pradié on Wednesday – the poster with Laurent Wauquiez is particularly awaited given their different past ideologies.

In June 2019, Valérie Pécresse left LR denouncing a party "padlocked from the inside, in its organization, but also in its ideas".

She had several times before worried about a "shrinkage" under the presidency of Laurent Wauquiez.

"It was a real detestation", remembers a support of the candidate, "she found that he embodied a radical right, too divisive".

Often seen as the bearer of a liberal vision of the right, the founder of Libres!

has since made a very firm tone heard on the regal, alongside Eric Ciotti.

Speaking of “restoring French pride”, promising to intensify the “charters” of undocumented immigrants or to “bring out the Karcher” against delinquents, she also displays her desire to revalorize work.

"Basically, she is exactly on the line of Laurent Wauquiez two years ago", welcomes the entourage of the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, assuring that on a personal level "there is no hostility between them.

Both had signed a platform last July to call for a primary on the right.

It was before Laurent Wauquiez gave up running for president "not to add division to division".

"Star"

Valérie Pécresse and Laurent Wauquiez should speak at a public meeting around 3:00 p.m., after a visit to the carefully designed program: nursing home marking the importance of rurality, then visit to the cathedral, symbol of Christian roots that the candidate LR defended strongly in a stand in December.

For Valérie Pécresse, returned to LR, it is a question of gathering as widely as possible, before a day on Saturday devoted to the Centrists and the UDI.

"We need the urban, liberal, rather European right, close to people who have gone to Macron but who can come back, and the Bonapartist, patriotic, rooted right, sometimes qualified as the hard right, which Laurent Wauquiez embodies, and which neighbors with people who have gone to Zemmour, even Le Pen", provides support from Valérie Pécresse.

The former president of LR, who had retired from the national political scene since his resignation in 2019, retains a special aura in this coveted right wing.

"For the activists, he is the star, when the young people returned to school he did not even have to open his mouth that it was a riot", recalls a support from Valérie Pécresse.

Three months before the presidential election, when the right finally has a chance to reach the second round, Laurent Wauquiez "also has an interest in showing that he wants to play collectively, when he has always been seen as a personal. And he knows that after ten years in the opposition, if we lose again, the political family explodes”, adds this support.

With his influence with elected officials, Laurent Wauquiez will have the strategic task of mobilizing them for Valérie Pécresse, at the head of a committee included in the campaign organization chart.

© 2022 AFP