PRESIDENT LR. Seven candidates claim the presidency of LR, but will all of them have enough sponsorship to remain in the running? The search for support ends this Thursday, November 3 before the formalization of applications.
[Mise à jour le 3 novembre à 13h47] One month before the Congress of Republicans and the election of the future president of the right-wing party, the candidates in the running are campaigning. For several weeks, it has been a fierce quest for sponsorships that has been playing out behind the scenes as the search for political support ends this Thursday, November 3. With the count of sponsorships, it is the official and final list of candidates that must be known. It goes without saying that the big names on the right who covet the presidency of the Republicans, such as Bruno Retailleau, Eric Ciotti or even Aurélien Pradié, will obtain, unless surprised, a sufficient number of signatures. But other right-wing men have volunteered, such as the mayor of Orléans Serge Grouard and there are currently seven of them hoping to collect the 485 sponsorships.
It is not only to obtain sponsorships, which only members of the Les Républicains party can deliver, that the candidates for the presidency of the formation of the traditional right are militant. Everyone, and in particular the three heavyweights of the ballot, are looking ahead and are already thinking of the election of December 3 and 10, 2022. It will then be necessary to collect as many votes as possible and one of the ways to ensure a good score is to play the “card machine”. Understand to encourage former members or even relatives to update their subscription or to join the Republicans in order to be able to vote and elect the president of the party in a month. However, this Thursday, November 3 also marks the deadline for new members to participate in the end-of-year ballot. Telephone canvassing has been at work for several weeks in the camps of the various candidates, particularly in “the territories where the bulk of our troops are” explained a close friend of Eric Ciotti to 20 minutes. The daily specifies that in Bruno Retailleau’s team, no less than 300 people are dedicated to this task. After sponsorships and memberships close, the campaign for LR presidential candidates will not be over. It will still be necessary to mobilize the troops and convince the members for a month until the election.
Potential candidates for the election have until November 3, 2022 at 3 p.m. at the latest to file the required sponsorships with the High Authority, which will publish the official list of candidates at a later date. After a campaign that could last for a month, the first round of the congress will be held from December 3, 2022 at 6 p.m. to Sunday December 4, 2022 at 6 p.m. If none of the candidates has obtained the majority of the votes cast during this first vote, a second round will be organized on December 10 and 11, 2022.
If the October 2019 congress had taken place without surprises, Christian Jacob, the 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.
Aurélien Pradié, finally candidate for the LR presidency
The deputy for Lot has long cast doubt on his candidacy for the election of President LR. But the ambition of this close friend of Christian Jacob and face of the new generation of the party was no secret and if the parliamentarian said he was “thinking about it seriously”, he above all formalized his candidacy in an interview with the Figaro September 12. Aurélien Pradié, who claims to be from the social wing of law training, has indicated that he wants to “rebuild the popular right” which is aimed at everyone and constitutes an alternative to Eric Ciotti and Bruno Retailleau. The elected official is known in the republican sphere, secretary general of the party since 2019 and very active on the ground in Occitania where he has been politically invested for many years.
Bruno Retailleau, from the president of the LR group in the Senate to the presidency of the party?
The senator who leads the group of Republicans in the upper house of Parliament, Bruno Retailleau, sees himself taking the reins of the party of the traditional right. It’s September 2 also in the columns of the Figaro that the heavyweight of the party has announced that he is a candidate for the LR presidency, a choice which he explains by the absence of Laurent Wauquiez: “Yes, I will be a candidate for the presidency of the Republicans. Laurent Wauquiez had all the qualities to preside over our movement but, in his absence, many have asked me to introduce myself. I am not lacking in responsibility, but I am not one to shirk myself.”
Eric Ciotti, one of the first candidate for the presidency of the LR party
The deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, already a candidate for the LR primary in December 2021 with a view to the presidential election, is trying his luck again by claiming this time for the presidency of the party. The man, figure of the right-wing wing of the right-wing formation, has been ensuring since the summer that he is “very determined” to take part in the reconstruction of the party as he confided to the JDD on July 24… before confirming his candidacy two days later in Nice morning. In July, the parliamentarian said he had already started “work to offer both a large gathering and a modernized political offer, in line with the expectations of the French”. “To straighten out our country, he added in the Nice daily, there is only one way: that of reform”. With the date of December 3 in the viewfinder, he intends more than ever to count in the future of a party that he has never left despite outside calls (in particular those of Eric Zemmour).
Who are the candidates for the LR presidency?
In addition to the three right-wing heavyweights who have decided to try their luck for the election of President LR, other candidates have come forward. They are seven to claim the presidency of the Les Républicains party before the formalization of the list of sponsorships which will be responsible for carrying out a first sorting after Thursday, November 3: Aurelien Pradie finally got into the race, as Bruno Retailleau supported by the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher but also Eric Ciotti. Facing them, the mayor of Orléans Serge Grouard is in the race like three other men encartes but without experience of elected politicians, Olivier Badelon, Christophe Jeammot and Sebastien Laye. The seven declarations of candidacy are available on the Republicans website.
During the campaign other names were put forward for the election to the LR presidency. This was the case for Michael Barnier, former European commissioner and ex-minister, who did not rule out running but ultimately did not go through with it. The name of the mayor of Troyes and former president of the Association of Mayors of France Francois Baroin as well as that of the president of the regional council of Hauts-de-France, Xavier-Bertrand, also circulated. Ambitions have also been wrongly attributed to David Lisnard, Mayor of Cannes and President of the Association of Mayors of France. The fact remains that an eighth candidacy was almost added to the list, that of a woman: Virginie Calmels. The former assistant to Alain Juppé at the town hall of Bordeaux had announced her candidacy in August but saw her file rejected by the party leadership. All candidates had to be up to date with their contributions on July 22, 2022. However, according to the High Authority of Republicans, this was not the case, rendering their ambition obsolete.
The first round of the election to the Presidency of the Republicans will therefore take place this winter, and will be preceded by a campaign which will begin in the fall, as specified by Annie Genevard, the interim president. Occupying the position since the departure of Christian Jacob in June, the latter will retire to make way for the future designated by the vote of the party congress. Yes, but who? Laurent Wauquiez, the great favorite of the barons of the party, quickly withdrew in favor of other ambitions, more… Presidential. In a letter published on his social networks, Laurent Wauquiez, the former minister and current president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region announced that he would give up running for the LR presidency, the election of which will take place in the fall. Instead, he intends to “devote all his energy” to the “refoundation” that he thinks essential to the country. Saying he is determined to “go beyond the questions of apparatus”, he says he wants to be at the “appointment of the great democratic choice of 2027”, enough to suggest that he aspires to the highest presidency, that of the Republic.
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 don’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.