However, she was warned. This February 29, Valérie Hayer speaks with Gabriel Attal, at the end of a meeting of the Renaissance executive office. The new head of the presidential party’s list for the European elections is expected a few minutes later on the TF1 news set. The Prime Minister, accustomed to media games, offers some advice. The interview is short. You have to be lively, have your point in mind. “And don’t be like me! I called Gilles Bouleau “Gilles Bourreau” during my first interview with him,” laughs the head of government.
Magnifying glass. “Hello Gilles Boyer,” says Valérie Hayer to the presenter, confusing his surname with that of the Renew MEP. A European parliamentarian laughs at this slip in an SMS to this close friend of Edouard Philippe. “You’re a star,” she wrote to him in substance. The sequence makes you smile. Social networks do not miss the candidate’s sluggish performance. LR vice-president Guilhem Carayon mocks a “crash”. His speech and his few syntax errors are mocked. Her predecessor Nathalie Loiseau warned her: “Don’t waste a second looking at the comments on the Internet, they are made to hurt you.”
“Media coverage”
Here is Valérie Hayer plunged into the deep end. Every word is dissected, there is no such thing as indulgence. Entry into the big leagues is at this price. “I’m in the middle of media training, not to say hazing,” she said on Tuesday during the group meeting of Renaissance deputies. The 37-year-old elected official nevertheless has a well-rounded CV: departmental advisor from 2015 to 2021, she was elected in January president of the Renew group, the third political force in the European Parliament.
This rise took place in the shadows, far from the French. Make way for the light. When Valérie Hayer looks at her campaign poster, it is with the astonished look of someone who spent the most time putting it up. It hits the media and invades homes. BFM, France Inter, France 5… “She has already spoken to 10 million people”, we note in the campaign staff. The head of the list will give a speech on Saturday in Lille during the first Renaissance meeting. “It’s my week of firsts,” she confides, admitting to feeling “a bit of pressure.”
“It must establish its legitimacy”
This day has an intimate significance. “She must establish her legitimacy and assume her new role,” notes Renaissance spokesperson Loïc Signor. “After this meeting, we must no longer ask her: ‘are you a default choice?’” This question is invariably submitted to Valérie Hayer, a little tired of answering them. There is an urgent need to get rid of the image of a substitute candidate, extirpated from the sidelines after a cascade of crimes.
The presidential camp is no stranger to this image. Several names – Bruno Le Maire, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Julien Denormandie… – have been circulated to lead the Renaissance list. Certain personalities were probed by the executive, other more folkloric names leaked to the press. At the risk of setting up a harmful narrative: that of a candidate who goes to the slaughterhouse facing an all-powerful RN, in a losing battle that no one wanted to fight. “It’s a bit of our fault,” confesses a Macronist strategist. “When we launch trial balloons, it creates rumors. Now we have to move on.”
This is a lesson from the 2019 election. European elections are won in the media, not in public meetings filled with convinced voters. Valérie Hayer undergoes “media training” exercises with Loïc Signor, a former political journalist. Nathalie Loiseau provides him with advice, taken from the 2019 campaign: use your voice, speak at your own pace, don’t listen too much to the communicators. After his appearance on TF1, the ex-minister was reassuring: “The person who doesn’t know you remembers what? How impressive it is to be on 8 p.m. We identify with that.”
Lovers of punchlines, refrain
Using small touches, Valérie Hayer sketches her style. She insists on her record in Strasbourg and relies on her knowledge of European issues to stand up to the National Rally. There is no question of nationalizing the vote as the far right wishes. She targets the uselessness of RN MEPs and attempts to suffocate Raphaël Glucksmann by insisting on their common votes in the European Parliament.
This highlighting of European issues echoes a sober style. Lovers of punchlines, refrain. “I’m not going to imitate Bardella, our voters don’t expect that,” she confides in private. Former Minister for Europe and Member of Parliament for Paris Clément Beaune confirms: “To bring together our base, we must be credible. Having a more technical head of the list, less Instagram than Bardella, is an advantage with our voters.” Therein lies the candidate’s mission. In an election hit by abstention, each camp must mobilize its own. Appreciated by Renaissance activists, Valérie Hayer must convince Emmanuel Macron’s base to come on June 9. An electorate that is older and educated than the average, with different expectations from those of Marine Le Pen’s supporters.
“Hayer must be in majesty”
She will not fight this battle alone. It is generally agreed that Emmanuel Macron will engage in one of his last electoral battles. Gabriel Attal too, who was presented as the “anti-Bardella weapon” when he joined Matignon. “An idiocy, annoys a Renaissance executive. Hayer must be in majesty despite the involvement of Macron and Attal.” This team raises questions about the real weight of a head of the presidential party’s list in the European elections. The polls carried out before the appointment of Valérie Hayer gave all potential Renaissance candidates a score between 19 and 22%. Will Valérie Hayer be crushed by the executive duo? Can she show her uniqueness during the campaign?
“There is a relative interchangeability three months before the election, notes Gilles Boyer. It is impossible to know if this lasts until the end. Nathalie Loiseau made more than 22% in 2019, when she had been unfairly criticized. Would anyone have done better? I doubt it but we’ll never know.” A Renaissance MP analyzes: “A head of the list does not make you lose or gain 10 points. But it has a mobilizing role. Its capacity to create enthusiasm or conversely to be a foil plays a role on some points.” It’s up to Valérie Hayer to snatch these precious votes.
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