The concept is well known. In politics, as in life, it is sometimes necessary to kill the father to take flight. After many upheavals and procrastination in recent months, the right seems to have resolved to symbolically sacrifice its own patriarch: Nicolas Sarkozy. For a long time, the former President of the Republic, the last from this political family to have succeeded in joining the Elysée Palace, was an untouchable personality. Recognized by all as being above the rest for his political talent, he provided advice and threats, and made or broke the ambitions of all those who tried to emerge after him within the Les Républicains (LR) party.
However, that era seems to be over. From a few words at the beginning of the summer, we have now moved on to very clear sentences. In particular from the candidate for the presidency of the party Bruno Retailleau. Asked about the fact that the former head of state would have said he wanted to leave the right-wing formation if he were elected as its head, the boss of the LR senators replied on October 4 on Europe 1: “I will tell you a secret: if I am elected and if Nicolas Sarkozy wishes to leave LR, let him do so. I won’t hold it back. » Ambiance.
A violent charge and remarks unimaginable not long ago. Admittedly, the relationship between the two men has not always been good. In 2020, when Mr. Retailleau hesitated to participate in the LR primary for the presidential election, Mr. Sarkozy had already hinted to visitors that he would not accept that the former lieutenant of François Fillon be the candidate of the right for the Élysée ballot. But that doesn’t explain everything. Because the senator from Vendée is far from being the only one to sound the charge against this tutelary figure of the party. In May, Aurélien Pradié, deputy for Lot and also a candidate for the presidency of LR, had already called for “Break with Sarkozyism”.
” Turn the page “
More recently, in a letter sent to members, Mr. Pradié did not mince his words “We will have to turn the page on Nicolas Sarkozy, whom I admired as president, but who today is causing trouble and no longer supports us. » Depend on the mood swings of the former President of the Republic, very little for the young guard. Nicolas Sarkozy “was a great president, but he is no longer the future of the right. This is the story », abounds the deputy of Haut-Rhin Raphaël Schellenberger. In July, it was the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes Eric Ciotti, also a candidate for the head of LR and resolutely Sarkozy, who declared: “The right must break its dependency with Nicolas Sarkozy. »
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