For a right-wing government in need of incarnation, the congress for the election of the party president will be an opportunity to close ranks. However, the emerging candidates testify to ideological and generational fractures.
“Today, we need a lighthouse”. The phrase, taken from an article in the Figaro, is of Christian Jacob, the man who has just relinquished his functions as president of the Republicans … And who is looking for his successor. For the time being, he is replaced by the deputy president Annie Genevard who is acting on rue Vaugirard until the next congress, scheduled for the fall. While the right embodied by LR tends to establish itself as the pivotal parliamentary group of this new fragmented Assembly, the absence of leadership is felt. Who will take over this central function? Unsurprisingly, the favorite is Laurent Wauquiez. And in fact, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional council knows the position well, having held it from 2017 to 2019. With his past as a minister, he now has the support of a number of tenors of the party, even before having made his candidacy official. Will the seniority card be enough for him to get the job? Not sure. It must be said that the competition is fierce. Embodied by the young secretary general of the party Aurélien Pradié, the new guard keeps watch. If she failed to have Julien Dive elected as chairman of the group in the Assembly (Olivier Marleix having finally won on June 22), she is betting on this elected representative from Lot, a bearer of values that want to be more modern, more social, more united. We take stock of the stakes of this election.
The resignation of Christian Jacob made some waves. Former minister, former mayor of Provins and ex-president of the UMP group then LR in the Assembly (from 2010 to 2019), he took the lead of the party in October 2019. Known for his ability to federate, he had brought the party together in view of the 2022 electoral period. However, the formation, weakened by the results of the elections, is today crossed by quite diverse political and ideological lines, threatening its unity. Few subjects there are unanimous, starting with the legacy left by Christian Jacob. The world quoted as such the admiration of Aurélien Pradié for his former president “Chiraquian”, who knew how to transmit his experience to the new guard. But the media also quoted MEP Brice Hortefeux who is more nuanced about the former boss, evoking his lack of incarnation of the function and his “non-presidential” side.
In addition, this departure from rue Vaugirard comes when the President of the Republic was in the midst of negotiations with the leaders of the opposition party. The LR group in fact occupies a role of choice within this new Assembly without a majority, torn between two oppositions that could not be more divergent (namely the Nupes and the RN). With some 70 deputies, the Republican right could be the adequate ally of a presidential camp in difficulty since the loss of the absolute majority on June 19th. The choice of its leader will therefore be crucial in the future of French political life and will determine part of the balance of power within the hemicycle.
The party is reorganizing itself as a whole. The election of Olivier Marleix at the head of the parliamentary group on June 22 marked a turning point, shortly after the departure of Damien Abad, conquered by the macronie. And the changes won’t stop there. Cécile Richez, until then the party’s communications director, will be replaced by Marie-Eve Malouines, Anne Genevard’s current communications officer. For her part, Cécile Richez should become general secretary from September. She will succeed in this capacity to Jean-François Verdier, who will for his part be placed in the administration of the party.
The congress of Republicans for the election of their new president will be held in November 2022. If the congress of October 2019 had taken place without surprises, Christian Jacob, widely favored candidate, having won in the first round with more than 62% of the votes, this time, the suspense should be there. Especially since the future president may have a presidential future: “We must definitely get rid of the primaries, which I have also taken out of the LR statutes, and my successor must be intended to be a candidate in 2027”, explained Christian Jacob during an interview available on the Republicans website.
Deputy Vice-President of the Republicans since 2021, Annie Genevard has held the interim party presidency since July 1. This mission, it should ensure it at least for five months, the time that the elections are held designating the official president in the fall.
Representative of the new generation of the party, Aurélien Pradié is one of the most credible potential candidates. Close to Christian Jacob, he became secretary general of the Republicans after the latter’s election as party president in October 2019. Very active on the ground in Occitania, he was successively general councilor of Lot, mayor of Cœur de Causse and regional councilor of Occitania. From his beginnings in politics, he mixed his attachment to the territory with his career ambitions by becoming president of the Young UMP du Lot. In 2022, he was re-elected deputy for the 1st constituency of the Lot following a remarkable campaign in the region.
Ideologically, he claims to belong to the social wing of the party, that of George Pompidou, and has often engaged in social issues such as poverty, disability or violence against women. He questions the preponderance of economic liberalism in society and believes that social issues should count as much as the sovereign aspect of governance. Asked by MidiLibre, he evoked the “national message” sent by the voters to the legislative ones: “Among those which make the best scores at the Republicans, they are candidates of the new generation or those which carry a popular political message and social justice”. Thus defending his political lineage, he affirmed: “It is the path of political reconstruction that we must take”. For Aurélien Pradié and the republican youth he embodies, the idea of the end of an era is “a reality”, and it is time to “take over”.
The new guard is getting organized… But that’s without counting on the tenacity of the old ones. Once again, the credibility of Laurent Wauquiez is growing within the party. If he has not yet expressed interest in the position, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region is widely expected. From Michel Barnier who gives him “a central place” in the “political family” to Bruno Retailleau who insists on “the tremendous expectation” of incarnation on the part of the members of the party (comments collected by Le Figaro), he is the leading figure. Christian Jacob praised him himself: “Laurent is the one who brings together all the necessary qualities”, he affirmed during an interview for Le Figaro, citing pellmell the reasons to trust him. “He was solid in adversity,” he explained, referring to the collective failure of the Europeans in 2019, when the party only obtained 8.48% of the vote. He also mentioned the work of the elected official in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, today rewarded by the legislative scores, where, “out of 61 LR deputies, a third comes from this territory”. With his ministerial experience, he who was Secretary of State to François Fillon when he was Prime Minister then spokesperson for his government from 2007 to 2008, Minister for European Affairs from 2010 to 2011 or Minister for Higher Education and Research from 2011 to 2012, he is seen as the most capable of assuming the responsibilities incumbent on a party president.
Apart from these two names, that of the mayor of Troyes François Baroin is also circulating. The former president of the Association of Mayors of France and great supporter of François Fillon in the 2017 presidential election could well be the third on the list of the most anticipated personalities. We also think of the president of the Hauts-de-France regional council Xavier Bertrand, who returns to the front of the stage despite his heavy defeat in the party’s primary in December 2021 (given favorite, he finished fourth with 22.4% votes in the first round). A great opponent of Laurent Wauquiez, he even left the party in 2017, when the latter took the lead; he could this time challenge him in this race for the presidency. By the start of the school year, certain details should be provided on the candidates for this long-awaited election.