“We call it a remontada, I think?” Smiling, Brice Hortefeux does not shy away from his pleasure. Not that of the PSG supporter after the surprise victory in the Champions League against Barcelona. Rather that of the survivor who defied the predictions. The MEP inherited this Tuesday, April 30 from seventh place on the Republican (LR) list for the European elections, following a National Nomination Commission (CNI) of the party. Here he is in an eligible position, at the dawn of the election. June 9. “Politics is an addition,” he confides to L’Express. You have to add renewal and experience.”
The man is a survivor. Like Nadine Morano, placed in sixth place. Eric Ciotti once thought of getting rid of the two elected officials, in the name of renewal. Morano and Hortefeux? The faces of an extinct Sarkozysm scath their detractors. “We need to refresh LR’s image,” judged an LR contender for the European elections. It has not happened. Eric Ciotti offered one last ride to the two former ministers, to the great dismay of part of the right. List composition is a complex equation. When a party supplied with executives is promised a low score – LR is credited with 7% of voting intentions – it turns into a mission impossible. “At 14%, I accommodated everyone who wanted to be there,” Eric Ciotti recently confided to an elected official. History will tell the traces left by this choice.
This Tuesday, April 30, the boss of LR brings together the 88 members of the CNI at the social museum, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. His list is ready, drawn up the day before during a strategy meeting. In front of his peers, Eric Ciotti praises a mixture of renewal and political maturity. Four of the first five candidates on the list were not in the running in 2019. The former deputy for Ille-et-Vilaine Isabelle Le Callennec (4) and the surgeon from Nice – loyal to Eric Ciotti – Laurent Castillo (5) come to support the farmer Céline Imart (2) and General Christophe Gomart (3). Only the head of the list François-Xavier Bellamy returns to the fight.
“Our leaders behave as if we were at 30%”
The order of the following ones raises more eyebrows. In the CNI, elected officials from the Grand Est come to the aid of Anne Sander, placed 10th despite a record recognized in the European Parliament. They don’t mention the name of Nadine Morano, who has a reputation as a dilettante, but everyone understands. Jean-François Copé mentions the case of Geoffroy Didier, relegated to an uncertain 11th place despite his support for Eric Ciotti during the internal campaign and his role as conductor of the Estates General of LR, the party’s doctrinal rearmament undertaking.
The LR MEP is paying for his deteriorated relationship with François-Xavier Bellamy, whom he had sharply criticized the day after the failure of 2019. His reputation as a worker in Brussels was not enough to make him supplant Brice Hortefeux. “It’s a bonus for the capacity to cause harm against those who are loyal,” laughs a party executive. “Our leaders behave as if we were a government party with 30% in the polls,” regrets another. “They don’t see the need to change everything.” A campaign executive is tempered, without enthusiasm. “There were only bad choices to make. I don’t want to shoot the ambulance. And then, Morano and Hortefeux have media coverage.”
The two miracle players had a few Aces in their game. Brice Hortefeux was emphatically supported by Laurent Wauquiez. The former tenant of Beauvau also used his Sarkozy affiliation to win the bet. “There should not be Sarkozysts in the RN – like Mariani -, in the government, and not on the LR list”, he told Eric Ciotti to defend his candidacy. Nadine Morano finally let herself ostensibly be flirted with by the National Rally (RN) to increase her value. Several elected officials especially feared that she would run to the media – and deprive LR of precious speaking time – to denounce her ouster. In the entourage of the Nice resident, we pragmatically defend the presence of the two elected officials at the top of the list: “People pushed for their presence. Eric Ciotti has a balancing act.”
Retailleau and Larcher abstain
This balancing act is not unanimous. The president of the CNI, Michèle Tabarot, remained silent this Tuesday during the discussions. 13 members of the CNI abstained when the list was voted on. Among these abstainers, the president of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, and the boss of LR senators, Bruno Retailleau. The first defended the candidacy of his special advisor Patrick Dray, the second advocated more renewal.
In a group meeting, Bruno Retailleau confided his disappointment, but called on us to fight the campaign. The right is playing for its survival on June 9, its disappearance from the European Parliament would sign the end of its Elysee ambitions. Please close ranks. The deputies did not broach the subject during their weekly exchange. “A strategic silence,” notes one of them. “People will speak after the European elections.” The symptom, too, of a form of indifference. Some LR deputies remain distant from a difficult campaign, still bogged down in opinion polls.
Composing a list, an exercise for internal use, is a delicate art. Risking it is guaranteed to leave people disappointed. And receive blows. Eric Ciotti is no exception to the rule. François-Xavier Bellamy recently described to L’Express the challenge of setting up this team. “This colors the political identity of the list and the message we send. All of this is not trivial.” The LR leader would have liked to lead a more regenerated team. He will have to do without it.