She was one of the spokespersons for Valérie Pécresse, candidate of the Réublicains during the presidential election. The president of the Pays de la Loire region, Christelle Morançais, announced that she was “no longer a member of the Republicans”, in an interview published by West France this Friday.
“I have not been a member of the Les Républicains party since the day after the first round of the presidential election (April 10, 2022),” she said. Christelle Morançais had welcomed with “relief” the victory of Emmanuel Macron against Marine Le Pen calling for “help” the president “to build the unity that France so badly needs”.
“I did not understand that my party could put Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen on an equal footing,” she explained. A position which had earned him, at the time, criticism within the Republicans, while others imagined him willingly joining the new government, including as Prime Minister.
“In accordance with my beliefs”
Claiming to have “left without animosity, without resentment” from LR, the Sarthoise, aged 47, nevertheless ensures to keep “very good friends at Les Républicains”. “I am and I remain a right-wing, liberal, European, modern woman. I am free and I devote myself entirely to the Pays de la Loire region,” says Christelle Morançais.
Considered close to Edouard Philippe’s Horizons party, Christelle Morançais explains that she has not joined any training for the moment. “I do not make a choice of rupture, but of freedom. I am not a party woman, but a grassroots woman. It’s a personal decision, in accordance with my convictions, ”she justifies.
Retailleau “would make a very good president”
About the election to the presidency of LR (December 3 and 4), Christelle Morançais, close to the former regional president Bruno Retailleau, whom she succeeded in 2017, recalls that for the moment the candidacy of the boss LR senators “is not official”. “He would make a very good president of the LRs and he proves it at the head of the LR group in the Senate, just as he has shown it to the region”, estimates the elected official.
First woman to preside over the Pays de la Loire region, Christelle Morançais, 47, has experienced a meteoric rise since her first unsuccessful candidacy for the 2014 municipal elections in Le Mans. A member of the UMP in 2002, Christelle Morançais began campaigning in 2011 for the re-election of Nicolas Sarkozy. Head of the list in Sarthe at the 2015 regionals, she became second vice-president of Pays de la Loire after the victory of Vendéen Bruno Retailleau and was re-elected in June 2021.