He won’t make the same mistake twice. In a long text published this Sunday evening on his Facebook page, Laurent Wauquiez announces that“after much thought”, he will not be a candidate this fall for the presidency of his party, Les Républicains (LR). A position that the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region occupied from 2017 to 2019 and that he had chosen to leave after the heavy defeat of his camp in the Europeans (8.5%). An episode which had forced him, then, to pass his turn for the presidential election. “What it’s aboutwrites Wauquiez, cIt is less to save a party than to save France.” Just that
“I make this choice because I believe that we must devote all our energy to this overhaul to which our country aspires. Such a requirement does not support any dispersion. You have to give yourself totally to it; we must distance ourselves from the political fight”, continues the one who has therefore in no way given up his presidential ambitions. Very much behind this year during the primary of the right then the campaign of Valérie Pécresse as the unsuccessful candidate of LR (4.8%) and while his camp is courted in the Assembly to bring majorities “text by text” to the government of Elisabeth Borne, Wauquiez positioned himself very early on to prepare «l’alternative» to Emmanuel Macron.
“The alternative that we must build must go beyond questions of devices. I am convinced that this is the only path that will make it possible to meet the great democratic choice of 2027. It is, neither more nor less, than building a change of the same nature as that of 1958he wrote. The subject is neither Emmanuel Macron nor Marine le Pen, the subject is the aftermath.” And this “after” will face each other “if nothing is done […] the extremes”. “It would be the worst fate for France: for lack of having been able to rebuild our country, we would choose to destroy it in a last fire of Saint John”dramatizes the former mayor of Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire).
Regional recipe for national ambition
In this long forum, the former Secretary of State then Minister of various governments of François Fillon (Employment, European Affairs, Research and Higher Education) tries to demonstrate that his favorite themes, if they cost him at the national level , pay at the regional level: struggle “against the assistantship”appel “to reconnect with working France”defense of “middle classes”, “European protectionism”, “dangers of uncontrolled immigration”, “fight against communitarianism through the symbol of the burkini”, “good management of public money”… “When I do this, it’s because I believe that to rebuild the country, we need clear courses and determined actions.he said. In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, these results enabled the right to come out of the legislative elections stronger, while the RN and macronism recorded poor results. The recipe should therefore also be able to work in five years at the national level?
In any case, Wauquiez does not spare his political family. “After three consecutive defeats in the presidential election, the right has lost this historical link which has always united it to the French through the ages, movements and men.he wants to believe. The right, for too long, has had neither clarity of convictions nor courage in action: inability to take control of insecurity or immigration, pusillanimity in the fight against welfare, wandering in European choices and timidity to seize the challenges of tomorrow such as school or the environment. This observation is hard, but it must be done: the failures of the past make it essential to proceed differently. His LR friends will appreciate…
Wauquiez absent from the race for congress, who to succeed Christian Jacob who left the presidency of the party on July 1 after having held the position for three years? The names of the general secretary of the party Aurélien Pradié, deputy of Lot, of the former minister Rachida Dati, mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris, or of the mayor of Cannes David Lisnard, president of the Association of mayors of France, circulate. Just like those of the boss of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, of the European deputy François-Xavier Bellamy or of the finalist of the presidential primary, Eric Ciotti. For Wauquiez, appointment is already given, on August 28, at the top of Mont-Mézenc for its traditional political return. Where he will have, this year, some messages to convey.