What would politics be without its stunts, its low blows, its twisted blows, its dirty tricks…? Because, as Edouard Philippe would say, “we have to do things seriously without taking ourselves seriously”, the political service of L’Express offers to immerse you in the corridors of power thanks to a weekly meeting, every Thursday, on our website.
Regional President, does it still pay?
Laurent Wauquiez and Xavier Bertrand have one thing in common. These two presidential candidates do not sit in Parliament and are betting on their regional presidency to satisfy their ambitions. For what result? The relative majority makes the Assembly the heart of power, the deputies take all the light. Aurélien Pradié competes with the boss of Hauts-de-France on the social wing of LR, the notoriety of Éric Ciotti is close to that of the president of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Analysis of an LR adviser: “They made an American transposition and believed that their region would be the equivalent of Florida for Bush. But in our Jacobin country, national politics is not done in the territories.”
Retirements, Retailleau’s regrets
(LtoR) Les Republicains (LR) members: head of the Hauts-de-France regional council Xavier Bertrand, LR senate group president Bruno Retailleau and MP Eric Ciotti talk during a press conference of the party’s presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse to present her electoral program for the upcoming elections, in Paris on March 14, 2022. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)
© / AFP
The art of turning gold into lead. The right hoped to redo the icing on pensions, a theme at the heart of its DNA. Alas, his internal divisions scrambled his message and spoiled his streak. The boss of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau confided to a relative his regrets. “We had the means to distinguish ourselves from Le Pen by showing our seriousness, but I think we gave a lot of air to the RN. Part of our liberal electorate risks designating Macron as the super reformer.”
Pensions: taking on the “ch…” reform
They are beginning to be numerous, in the entourage of the Head of State, to think that there has been an error of analysis on the pension reform. Thus this leading minister who deplores: “Our mistake is not to assume that it is boring as a reform, we were mistaken in thinking that we could be popular with it!” Or this former adviser who warns: “Élisabeth Borne wants to buy herself an image of a social reformer with this ‘fair reform’ but it’s the perfect boomerang! It is necessary before being fair.” Another “pedagogical” problem as we say in Macronie.
Giorgia Meloni makes Reconquest dream!
The first 100 days of the Italian Prime Minister never cease to make the French far right dream. The new president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella, but also Eric Zemmour, whose executives of his party Reconquest! only have the name Meloni in their mouths. “The regional elections confirm her enthusiasm, she is doing what she can in a very complicated economic situation, I look at her beginnings in a very positive way”, confides to L’Express Marion Maréchal, in reference to the partial regional elections in mid-February. , where the right won two important regions, Lombardy and Lazio. During a meeting in Rome before her election, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s granddaughter tried to explain to her what Reconquest was doing… But since coming to power, the transalpine leader has focused her efforts more on being accepted on the European scene than to federate its conservative neighbours.
Aurore Bergé, this “old right-wing man”
If the majority and the government have not “cracked” as assured – sorry, shouted in a hoarse voice – Minister Olivier Dussopt, some Renaissance deputies could not take it anymore. Rebellious people and their obstruction of course, but also and above all their own leader, Aurore Bergé, of whom few appreciated “the method” during the pension reform, and her “chin blows” which just as much “conflicted the debate” than the Insoumis, says an oil of the majority. “The group will quickly become a petaudière with her,” sighs our source from the majo. And to dare to compare: “Aurore, she leads the group like an old right-wing man from the 80s, 90s.” And that, at only 36 years old!