Presidential election of 2027: Laurent Wauquiez pledges to lead the right "towards a great collective success"

Alexandre Chauveau, with AFP // photo credit: PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP 18:31 pm, October 01, 2023

The LR president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region Laurent Wauquiez, criticized for his discretion on the national scene, made Sunday a step forward for his candidacy for the Elysee, promising to want to lead the right to "a great collective success" in 2027. Taxed this summer of "small arm" by Nicolas Sarkozy, blamed within his party for his silence during the pension reform, Laurent Wauquiez worked to reassure the 500 people gathered in Valence (Drôme) at the Forum of young Republicans.

In a speech of about forty minutes, interrupted by shouts "Wauquiez president!", he did not explicitly announce his candidacy, but made it clear that he was preparing for it. "Make no mistake ... I will devote all my energy: to lead you again to a great collective success" in 2027, he assured. "I have measured the cost of serenity and determination to unlock the French Republic. And today, I'm ready for it."

The need to "take another path"

Above all, the former boss of LR has tried to explain his strategy sometimes misunderstood by activists to stay away from national politics, despite pressure from other potential candidates such as Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin or former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. Within the Republicans, the president of the influential Association of Mayors of France (AMF), David Lisnard, is also preparing the ground and inaugurates next Tuesday the Paris headquarters of his movement "New energy".

"Some people wonder why I don't monopolize the microphones (...) why I refuse to reproduce the political patterns that have led our country on the slope of decline for 40 years," said Laurent Wauquiez, insisting on the need to "take another path". "If we prepare for this election like the others, we will lose it like the others."

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"Measuring efforts"

A speech of "hope" for the boss of LR Eric Ciotti, who had reiterated a month ago, during the return of his party in Cannet (Alpes-Maritimes), his support for the candidacy of Mr. Wauquiez for the next presidential election. "The path we want to follow behind you," he said Sunday in front of the activists, after explaining to the press that a candidate must "know how to dose the efforts", saying he is convinced that the "sprinters of today" will not be on the finish line in 2027. In a speech very marked on the right, Mr. Wauquiez castigated the "waste of public money", the "welfare" or those who oppose "a progressive France to a populist France".

He took the opportunity to speak on national issues such as the motions of non-confidence that could be tabled this fall if the government uses 49.3 to pass the budget. "In our family, we do not table motions of censure at all costs for the simple pleasure of bringing down a government, thus taking the risk of adding chaos to disorder," he said. Instead, he issued a warning to the executive on the immigration bill.

"Zero net artificialization"

"If a text were to clash head-on what represents for us the heart of the national interest and lead to open new calls for air for even more immigration, then our duty would be to oppose it with all our strength and by all institutional means," he warned. Before his speech in Valence, Mr. Wauquiez has already interfered on the national scene by announcing Saturday the exit of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes of the "zero net artificialization" (ZAN), a device led by the regions and which aims to stop the concretization of the soil in 2050.

The abandonment of this measure is a gesture towards the rural communes of his region who saw a wave RN at the expense of the right during the last presidential and legislative elections.