He won’t hold it back. Bruno Retailleau, candidate for the presidency of the party Les Républicains (LR), declared on Tuesday, on Europe 1, to see no problem with a possible departure of Nicolas Sarkozy from LR. He was reacting to the intention attributed to the former President of the Republic to leave Les Républicains in the event of the election of Mr. Retailleau at their head.
The current president of the LR group in the Senate also takes care to criticize the political heritage of the former head of state to better highlight his own projects.
“I will tell you a secret: if I am elected and if Nicolas Sarkozy wishes to leave LR, let him do so. I will not remember it and even I understand it, ”says the Vendée elected official at first.
He then puts forward what he considers to be the failures of his political family when it was in charge of the country, which amounts to a more or less direct criticism of the choices made by Nicolas Sarkozy. He thus regrets, for example, that the 35 hours have not been abandoned; he also regrets that the principle of double punishment (conviction followed by expulsion from the territory for a foreigner) has been “abandoned”.
“We have to tell the French that we learn from our failures and we are not exactly the same right,” he says. “I want a right that is really right. I was saying it, not a half-time right, not a half right, the full right. »
Election in early December
This position of Bruno Retailleau is not free and comes in reaction to a supposed position of the former host of the Elysée. According to information from L’Express, Nicolas Sarkozy “does not want to hear about Bruno Retailleau at the head of the Republicans”. To an elected official with whom he would have recently spoken, he would have explained that he would leave this party completely if Bruno Retailleau became its president.
The election for the presidency of the Republicans will take place on December 3 and 4 for the 1st round. The second round will be organized on December 10 and 11. In addition to Bruno Retailleau, the candidates are the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, Éric Ciotti, the secretary general and deputy of Lot, Aurélien Pradié, and the mayor of Orléans (Loiret), Serge Grouard.