The former Sarkozyist Minister of the Budget, Eric Woerth, had announced Thursday his rallying to Mr. Macron, as well as the mayor LR of Calais Natacha Bouchart, defections which deal a blow to the campaign of Mrs. Pécresse, who is holding a big Sunday meeting designed to relaunch his campaign.
"My support today goes to Emmanuel Macron, unquestionably, it is a decision that has been carefully considered," said the former minister Les Républicains (LR).
"The choice is binary today: either you support a camp on the right, where there is a kind of race of small horses to who will be (the) most radical (...) to cross the bar of first round", or "the one embodied by Emmanuel Macron", still not an official candidate, in a project which "will continue (....) the dynamic initiated for five years", she added.
Ms. Berra said she would not vote for the candidate of her former political family, Valérie Pécresse.
"She is a great technician who is very committed" but "the qualities of a president (that) I see in Emmanuel Macron, this political courage to hold the helm", "I do not see it, unfortunately, in Valérie Pécresse".
It is a "completely assumed" choice, she added, justifying having slammed the door of the Republicans in 2017 because the "line (...) had already become, at the time, too radical", a line "in which I did not recognize myself".
"I am of this humanist right, of this social right today", argued the former Secretary of State for Health from 2010 to 2012.
"I have no feeling at all of betraying Nicolas Sarkozy", she continued, hammering at him to remain "faithful" and to have "a lot of affection for him".
© 2022 AFP