After the poaching of Rachida Dati and Catherine Vautrin, how do Les Républicains think of counter-attacking?

Alexandre Chauveau / Photo credits: MAGALI COHEN / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 08:28 a.m., January 15, 2024

The entry of Rachida Dati into the government has created confusion among Les Républicains. The right-wing party did not expect this appointment, including its president Éric Ciotti. The party boss had even obtained a promise from Gabriel Attal that no poaching would take place. As a result, the right's leniency for the new prime minister was short-lived.

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Rachida Dati in government, an "unwelcome" poaching

Relations with the government were already fresh, they have become frosty since the announcement of Rachida Dati's appointment to the government. An "unwelcome" poaching for a Republican executive, pessimistic about the quality of future relations between the right and the executive.

"Attal's youthism serves to mask the obsolescence of Macronism"

If LR has taken the blow, the party is now trying to turn the page. "It won't change anything in the lives of the French people or the Republicans," said Olivier Marleix, who denounced in Le Figaro a government casting in the style of Star Academy. "Attal's youthism serves to mask the obsolescence of Macronism," said the president of the LR group in the Assembly.

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The right will not vote for confidence if Gabriel Attal asks for it next Tuesday. But it will also not participate in bringing down the government in the event of a motion of censure tabled by Nupes. Some elected officials are tempted to do so, but the majority of them want to believe that consistency and loyalty will pay off in the end. As soon as he was appointed, Gabriel Attal will have to face the same conundrum as Élisabeth Borne: to expand his majority, by seeking out Republicans who are a minority but essential to govern.