"I invite all right-wing and center voters to remobilize. I invite in particular those who, from the first round of the presidential election, believed it necessary to vote + useful + - that is say Macron - so as not to risk a Le Pen-Mélenchon duel, not to fall into the same trap and to regain their freedom", affirms the former contender, eliminated in the first round with 4.78% of the vote, in a forum published on the Figaro website.
France is "placed before the risks of a confrontation between, on the one hand, the hyper-presidency, on the other, hyperpopulism. A democracy reduced to this duel can only be violent and sterile for the French", believes Valérie Pécresse.
"And the day when the current power will be declining, there will only be the protest parties left to claim to govern France", warns the president of the Ile-de-France region.
"Only a free and credible right can stop this disastrous scenario. By voting for it, the French can push back the extremes, but also, influence future orientations", she judges.
For Ms. Pécresse, "we must put an end to the Jupiterian verticality" of Emmanuel Macron, while Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon "with their illusory radicality, feed on problems without solving them".
"In the National Assembly, the real opposition will be the one that does not give in to the intoxication of demagogy," she underlines.
First opposition group in Parliament, the Republicans are playing their survival in the legislative elections, where they risk seeing their numbers melt away, after the worst defeat in their history.
© 2022 AFP