• The legislative elections are organized on June 12 and 19.

  • After the presidential rout, the right is advancing towards this election cautiously, hoping to have the hundred or so outgoing deputies re-elected.

  • While some elected officials seem to be trying to join the macronie, the party is hunkering down, hoping to postpone the big explanation after the ballot.

Stunned by the presidential debacle, the right is trying to stay upright.

Almost a month after the historically low score of Valérie Pécresse in the first round (4.78%), the Republicans are sounding the tocsin for the legislative elections.

The objective: to limit damage on June 12 and 19 by saving what can be saved.

But the campaign, officially launched on Saturday, threatens to implode the party because several elected LRs are tempted to join the macronie.

“We have no interest in nationalizing the debate”

“After the blow, how is the right?

Not very well…”, breathes Eric Pauget, deputy Les Républicains des Alpes Maritimes.

“But on the ground, it's not as dramatic as what we experienced in the presidential election.

I play it a little as if it were a departmental or municipal election.

Having a known face in our ridings can save us.

If we succeed, it will be thanks to this local anchoring”.

This is the strategy of the right: bet on the good establishment of the party to save the maximum of the 101 constituencies held with the centrist allies.

“This heavy defeat, we make sure to erase it with our involvement on the ground.

We have no interest in nationalizing the debate, everyone is campaigning in their own corner, ”confirms the LR deputy from Pas-de-Calais, Pierre-Henri Dumont.

To make people forget the rout of April, some have also chosen to do without the Les Républicains logo on their posters, like the number 3 of the movement, Aurélien Pradié.

“It's not out of shame, but in the Lot, the Pradié brand is more powerful than the LR logo.

The problem today is the party, which is no longer strong enough in relation to our local presence, ”adds the elected representative from the North.

The June battle promises to be tough nonetheless.

The right will have to face elected officials from the presidential majority, candidates from the RN and Reconquest, but also those from the united left.

Conversely, the latter are trying to nationalize the elections as much as possible, hoping to surf on the good results of April.

“I do not think that the legislative elections are the replica of the presidential one.

The same Valérie Pécresse made 5% in April in territories where she made 50% at the regional [in June 2021], sweeps Julien Aubert.

There is a different equation for the outgoing, ”hopes the deputy, who is representing himself in Vaucluse.

Postponing concerns in the aftermath of the legislative elections

But the Republicans want above all to avoid the implosion.

Because for the past few weeks, several elected officials, including the boss of LR deputies Damien Abad, have been suspected of wanting to join Emmanuel Macron.

This strategy, which would be pushed in particular by Nicolas Sarkozy, has triggered sharp conflicts internally.

To avoid chaos, Christian Jacob tried to impose a clear line: "there is no possible double membership", threatening to exclude those who would cross the Rubicon.

The men and women invested by LR will even have to sign a "charter" affirming their political independence.

“It will hold, otherwise the implosion would have already taken place.

The few departures will do a little damage, but the majority line will be followed, ”says Philippe Gosselin, LR deputy for the Channel.

Even if the liner cracks, the right hopes to arrive safely.

“For now, we're saving the furniture.

Our future will depend on the June results.

If tomorrow, we are 150 in the Assembly or 40, it will not be the same thing, ”evacuates Pierre-Henri Dumont.

“We are completely in the dark.

Many of my colleagues are silent.

But the day after the legislative elections, we will see concretely who sits where?

If many elected officials adhere to the presidential structure, then LR will find it difficult to survive, ”recognizes Eric Pauget.

“The divorce between the Macron-compatibles and the others must be settled.

There will be a recomposition, completes Julien Aubert.

But there is affect, human ties, people are used to working together, so it takes time”.

In the ropes, the right still offers a little respite before the big explanation.

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  • Legislative elections 2022

  • The Republicans (LR)

  • The Republic on the March (LREM)

  • Right

  • Christian Jacob

  • Elections