France: kick-off of the battle for the presidency of the Les Républicains party
The young people of the Les Républicains party are making their comeback this Saturday, September 3 in Angers.
© REUTERS - GONZALO FUENTES
Text by: Lucile Gimberg Follow
2 mins
In France, the young LRs are back to school this Saturday September 3 in Angers.
A campus which, this year, serves as the starting line for right-wing figures who claim to take over the reins of the party.
On December 3, the militants will indeed choose a new leader.
And this Saturday, all the candidates for the head of LR took a warm-up tour among the young activists.
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From our special correspondent in Angers
,
Lucile Gimberg
The battle for the presidency of the Republicans began on Saturday at the back-to-school campus for young LRs in Angers, where the candidates, flanked by their first supporters, marked their differences and honed their arguments.
In the middle of the young people, it is the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, Éric Ciotti, who wins by applause.
The former finalist in the LR primary knows he is supported by the militant base and wants to benefit from the aura of the boss of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Laurent Wauquiez.
“
Me, I say things clearly,
says Éric Ciotti in the middle of his supporters
.
In the very clear opposition to macronism, and in our ability to designate very quickly who will wear our colors during the next presidential election, and for me, there is only one who can do it, it's Laurent Wauquiez
.
»
But the security gentleman on the right is considered too divisive by many executives and parliamentarians who push
the boss of LR senators, Bruno Retailleau
.
“
I want this courageous and certainly not shameful right, but we must also gather,
insists this one.
And if, tomorrow, we are not together, we will end up in a telephone booth.
»
Ciotti and Retailleau differ little on their line, so the Vendéen promises to change everything: create a new party, organize digital referendums for activists.
He explains at the microphone of RFI the reasons for his candidacy for the LR primary, which he declared this Saturday, September 3.
I think that the sovereign is fundamental, but I think that there are also other subjects to clear.
Of course, the right is both more security, less immigration, less public spending, less taxation, but today we have to explore completely new subjects.
I am very invested in the cultural field.
I find that the fight that the extreme left, with wokism, with Islamo-leftism, is waging against the foundations of our civilization is fundamentally serious.
I try to carry the project of a right that is complete...
Bruno Retailleau
Lucile Gimberg
It is above all time to renew the faces, replies the general secretary of the party, Aurélien Pradié.
The thirties, holding a more social line, could also apply: “
Renewal, that does not make a political project, it would be a little easy.
No, it's more than that, it's turning the tables.
Our political family was at a point where it no longer speaks to anyone, and therefore to speak to everyone, to become a popular right again, we must talk about subjects on which we no longer think today, in particular ecology.
»
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