Two personalities, two atmospheres. Wednesday morning June 22, they were two very different candidates to run for the head of the Les Républicains (LR) party group in the National Assembly. The elected representative of Aisne Julien Dive delivered his speech standing, in front of the office, in shirt sleeves. Olivier Marleix, re-elected in Eure-et-Loir, chose classicism instead, addressing his comrades sitting straight behind his desk, in a suit jacket and tie. It was the second who won, Wednesday, 40 votes to 20.
Passed by several ministerial cabinets, recognized for his knowledge of the files and his experience, the one who surveys the spans of the Palais-Bourbon since 2012 was better able to convince the group. Questioned, they were several, Wednesday, to rightly assert this knowledge of the functioning of the Assembly to justify their choice.
“The two candidacies were interesting and in the solidity of the line for a responsible opposition”thus indicates Alexandra Martin, deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, who specifies having voted in favor of Olivier Marleix “for the collaborative and participatory method he proposed”.
Political orientation of the LR family
Eric Ciotti, also deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, and of which everyone thought for a time that he was going to start, rejoiced, Wednesday morning: “Olivier Marleix has a perfect command of his files and will be able, in a situation unprecedented in its complexity, to manage the difficulties to come as well as possible. »
If the chosen one is satisfied with this victory, which is not really a surprise, it is because the two men are on the same line of hard opposition vis-à-vis the President of the Republic. Both keen on security and sovereign issues, both more to the right than their young comrades, who tried to overturn the table, Wednesday morning, by sending Julien Dive to try his luck.
Behind this battle for the group, was also played out, in a more muted way, that of the political orientation of the LR family in the National Assembly and beyond. If he supported Nicolas Sarkozy in 2017, Olivier Marleix has already shown his closeness to Laurent Wauquiez. However, if everyone assures hand on heart that Wednesday’s election only concerns the life of the group, it seems obvious that the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, who has not given up on his ambitions for the presidential election of 2027, wishes to return to the heart of the political game. With Olivier Marleix at the head of the group, he ensures at least one ally who, at the very least, will be able to convince the group to take positions compatible with his ideas: a clear and frank opposition to the President of the Republic of which he can boast in good time.
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