Second act for the designation of the right-wing candidate for the French presidential election next April. The activists The Republicans have been voting since Friday morning, December 3, electronically for the surprise second round of the primary. He opposes the deputy Éric Ciotti to the president of the Île-de-France region Valérie Pécresse. Exit therefore Xavier Bertrand and Michel Barnier, given favorites. What lessons should be drawn from this first round?
A surprise duel
There was no poll during this internal primary. With the 60,000 new LR members registered since September, no one, not even the Republicans party, dared to make predictions. Even if the result is tight and surprising, Éric Ciotti and Valérie Pécresse are undoubtedly the two candidates who have given the most envy to the militants.
The president of the Île-de-France region has been pugnacious in the TV debates. At the end of his public meetings, many applauded his ” energy “. The teams of the former Budget Minister have also done a painstaking job to get his supporters to join or re-join LR. Finally, it benefited from the support of several figures of sarkozysm.
Eric Ciotti has taken the most radical line, flirting with the extreme right and fiercely anti-Macronist. Comfortable in his positionoutsider, he knew how to play it during debates which revolved a lot around his favorite themes, namely security and immigration. It was also served by a political comeback marked by the provocations of the far-right polemicist Eric Zemmour whom Eric Ciotti said he preferred to Emmanuel Macron.
► To read also: Presidential 2022: surprise Ciotti-Pécresse duel for the second round of the LR congress
Ciotti in the first place, a rightwing of the party
In the 2016 right-wing primary, it was already the most radical candidate, François Fillon, who came out on top. The first place of Eric Ciotti, in the harder positions, confirms this trend. The deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes proposes, for example, a ” French Guantanamo And wants to end the right of the soil. He has been steadfast for years on a firm line, convinced that it echoes the concerns of the LR base.
The party executives put this right-wing into perspective by recalling that Eric Ciotti certainly came out on top, but with only a quarter of the votes, 25%. However, this trend is not just the prerogative of the deputy. The other three main candidates, Valérie Pécresse, Michel Barnier and Xavier Bertrand all entitled their speeches during the primary.
A snub for the two favorites: Xavier Bertrand and Michel Barnier
The former Brexit negotiator Michel barnier took a few hours to collect the news. After years in Brussels, the former minister has undoubtedly not made up his notoriety deficit. He was too stiff and withdrawn in the debates.
But the big loser is Xavier Bertrand, the president of Hauts-de-France. For the one who had been preparing for years and who tried to impose his candidacy on the right by leaving last March, it is the failure of a strategy. Perhaps this is the result of a certain stubbornness. If he had bowed to the exercise of Congress earlier, perhaps he could have won over more activists. Xavier Bertrand and Michel Barnier called to vote for Valérie Pécresse.
Pécresse more dangerous than Ciotti for Macron
” The risk for Macron would be the Pécresse victory. A few days before the first round, some in the majority were worried about a possible victory for the president of Île-de-France. A majority executive fears, for example, that it will bite the center-right electorate of Emmanuel Macron, especially in Paris and in Île-de-France where it is very established. Other sources do not seem to fear a victory for Valérie Pécresse, pointing to the fact that she was strongly right during the LR primary.