Often politician varies. Three years after shouting at him and pushing him to resign from his post as president of the Les Républicains (LR) party, the right is mourning Laurent Wauquiez and his decision not to run for the head of the party again, in November. Surprised by a choice that she definitely did not expect.
The president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region announced on his Facebook page, Sunday July 17, that he would not apply. “Today, after much thought, I have decided not to be a Republican presidential candidate”, wrote the former minister. Stating that “What is at stake is less saving a party than saving France”.
A shock for many LR executives who called for this candidacy. From Christian Jacob, ex-boss of the formation, to Annie Genevard, current interim president of the party, via Bruno Retailleau, at the head of the right-wing senators at the Luxembourg Palace, they had been several to affirm clearly that it it was he and no one else who would be needed to refloat Rue de Vaugirard, the address of the party’s headquarters. To the point that Mr. Wauquiez, who nevertheless has many enemies within LR, had ended up appearing, for some, as the natural candidate. The one who, according to them, can embody the ideas of the right, make it exist before leading it to the presidential election.
Bitter defeats
Regarding this last point, the chosen one has absolutely not given up. Only, it is no longer through the party that he plans to build a credible candidacy for 2027. “We must distance ourselves from the political fight, because today we no longer find any answer to it, because the play of short phrases and sterile polemics no longer allows us to hear the voice of the French”justified, Sunday, in his text, Mr. Wauquiez.
By giving up, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region opens the game for the succession of Christian Jacob at the head of LR. And plunges the party into an uncertain period. There was indeed no doubt that, candidate in November, he would win. Everyone knew, within LR, that the chosen one, and especially his line, fits perfectly with the aspirations of members with more right-wing inclinations than those of most party executives.
Without him in the competition, it is difficult to know who could return to training and give it the boost that many dream of after so many failures in national polls. Because if LR remains a party established throughout France, with a network of mayors and regional presidents, it continues to record bitter defeats: 8.5% in European elections, 4.8% in the presidential election, 61 deputies in the new National Assembly, when there were still more than a hundred during the previous legislature. These failures make members of the right fear their total disappearance on the national level.
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