"Pécresse was not in her place, she should never have gotten into this".

Agostino di Foggia does not beat around the bush.

This "Sarkozyst" restaurateur installed in the heart of Little Venice, the tourist district of Colmar, never considered supporting the candidate LR.

"I have always been on the right, never missed an election. But there, it was not possible. I voted for Macron".

In his elegantly decorated "Wistub", where bowler hats serve as lampshades, he recalls the campaign of his political family to point out the inconsistencies.

"We felt it was against nature," he says of the one who struggled to find the right tone.

"Beside, Macron helped us a lot during the Covid, he did what was necessary", notes the restaurateur who benefited from the support of the State.

In this city of 70,000 inhabitants, held by the right since the postwar period, the reasoning is widely shared: the incumbent president won with 28.8% of votes, against only 4.5% in Ms. Pécresse, either only a fifth of François Fillon's electorate in 2017 and not even the 4.8% achieved throughout France.

“We are a fairly touristy city, and it is true that all the hoteliers, the traders have gone to Macron”, analyzes the mayor, Eric Straumann (LR), who regrets “the absence of leadership” within his family. Politics.

The LR mayor of Colmar Eric Straumann and the former LR presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse campaigning in his city on October 6, 2021 SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP / Archives

"Save the Furniture"

MP between 2007 and 2020, he is desperate to imagine his former colleagues on the benches of the opposition for five more years.

"It is better to negotiate a coalition of government if they want to continue to exist", judges the one who met executives of LREM on Tuesday, on the occasion of the arrival of Emmanuel Macron in Alsace.

"It is not excluded that we lose a certain proportion of deputies", he fears when referring to the legislative elections of June 12 and 19.

In Alsace, the only region never to have been ruled by the left, he hopes that the historical establishment of the right "will make it possible to save the furniture".

But within the local party antenna, numbers have declined: the membership was divided by three since the Sarkozy era, and for the presidential, only a dozen volunteers remained mobilized until the end of the election campaign.

"It's true that we lost members, but those who remain today are the heart, they are the most loyal", tempers Mathieu, 23, insurance agent and local leader of the Young Republicans .

Faithful, this hard core is nonetheless critical of its national leaders.

Some do not digest the positioning of Nicolas Sarkozy, who called for Emmanuel Macron to vote in the second round, while he had remained silent in the first.

"He is dishonoring himself", condemns Monique Bouston, a retired magistrate and long-time activist.

"There are shenanigans behind," she imagines.

“It is sure that it will still hit us”.

"Nothing against the Parisians"

Others reject the call for donations from Ms. Pécresse, believing that they do not have to pay for the mistakes of a team that snubbed them.

Former LR presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse campaigning in Colmar on October 6, 2021 SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP / Archives

"I have nothing against the Parisians, but the campaign team was really the friends of Ile-de-France. In the provinces, there was nobody, while there were talents ready help", laments Alain Kott, head of the local section and ex-entrepreneur.

Despite its bitterness, the section is already planning for the legislative elections, seen as a "third round".

"I will go to tow more easily, because I know my deputy, I know his convictions," enthuses Monique Fritsch, a young 66-year-old retiree, who felt "less comfortable" defending Ms. Pécresse.

A few days before its entry into campaign, the incumbent Yves Hemedinger (LR) is "not worried over it" to the idea of facing his constituency Brigitte Klinkert, the Minister responsible for Insert, labeled LREM.

"From one election to another, the votes are not the same. A good part of the Macron vote is a default vote," he says, without being totally reassured about the future of his party.

"We can't totally rule out that it implodes."

© 2022 AFP