The right offers proof of life. The Republicans (LR) have chosen the Cirque d’Hiver, in Paris, to prove that they are still moving. Their president Eric Ciotti is launching this Saturday, June 17 the “general assembly of the right”, a brainstorming operation aimed at making LR the party “of ideas and reflection”. Vast subject, as evidenced by the title of three debates on the menu of the Parisian raout: “Where is the right?”, “Where should the right go?”, “How will it go about it? “.
This work of introspection, led by MEP Geoffroy Didier, will end in January 2024. “It is not a programmatic exercise, but a vision exercise, insists the elected official. The right must find its fundamentals, renew itself and gain readability. Working groups bringing together members, supporters and elected officials will be set up, alongside internal meetings at LR. A website will be launched this Saturday, on which the French will be able to deposit their contributions.
The right has a model, nostalgia for its past glory: the “states general of the opposition”, which in 1990 brought together the RPR and the UDF. The work of Nicolas Sarkozy and Alain Madelin gave birth to a radical doctrine on immigration and prepared for victory in the 1993 legislative elections. Geoffroy Didier met the two men to prepare the 2023 version.
Urgency of intellectual renewal
LR goes a long way. The party has not distinguished itself by its ideological creativity since the defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012. Internal crises paralyzed the UMP under the five-year term of François Hollande, and the presidency of Christian Jacob between 2019 and 2022 was as removed as a congress of the radical party. The boss of LR senators Bruno Retailleau rails against the lack of “software reformatting” of the right, a major theme of his campaign for the presidency of LR. It’s urgent. This camp, caught between Renaissance and the RN, fails to resolve its existential crisis. “More sovereign” than Macron and more “responsible” than Le Pen: this mirror definition does not outline a singular political offer. Valérie Pécresse paid to learn.
Obsessed with the idea of showing Emmanuel Macron’s weakness on security or immigration, LR neglects other subjects. Worse, the Republicans are shaking on their foundations. The right split during the examination of the pension reform, transforming itself into the left wing of Macronism. The objective of the Estates General is to set a collective line, an insidious warning to the slingers. “Our lack of internal exchanges and arbitration body has allowed individual trajectories to create agitation, notes the number 2 of LR François-Xavier Bellamy. We have to settle debates, as on work. “
A “free” exercise?
This ambition comes up against several limits. The heart of the right is not at the headquarters of the Republicans, but at the National Assembly. The 62 LR deputies, a pivotal force under a relative majority, drive his speech. The vote of a deliberation of the political office of LR in support of the pension reform in February did not prevent the secession of part of the group. Rebellious in chief, the Lotois Aurélien Pradié wonders in private about the degree of “freedom” of the states general. “These kinds of initiatives are of interest if you are completely free to open paths, which is not the case in the party.”
Eric Ciotti does not have the reputation of a doctrinaire. Neither did Geoffroy Didier. The man took a winding path within the Republicans. The choice of the MEP to lead the States General annoys the most ideological fringe of the right. “It’s not an example of consistency and clarity,” mocks an LR executive. “I am hardworking, loyal, and have never left my family,” retorts the interested party, promising that the result of the work will be anything but a “soft synthesis”. However, the panel of “external speakers” invited to Paris this Saturday is hardly imaginative. Eric Naulleau, Olivier Babeau, Mathieu Bock-Côté… Regulars of the news channels, omnipresent in the public debate. Getting away from the facilities, another challenge for LR.
The crucial role of presidential candidates
On the right, the party is rarely the spearhead of an ideological overhaul. It is above all the work of the candidate for the presidential election. Nicolas Sarkozy had enlisted the services of the enarque Emmanuelle Mignon to build his victorious program of 2007. François Fillon won the primary of 2016 on a liberal conservative line of his own.
2027 is no exception to the rule. Laurent Wauquiez is building his offer on the sidelines of LR and will be absent at the launch of the Estates General, even if he will take part locally. Xavier Bertrand and David Lisnard are counting on their “We France” and “New Energy” movements to prepare. “Defining a political line without a leader and without an incarnation is complicated,” notes an LR deputy.
Politics is the art of permanent movement. With these Estates General, Eric Ciotti is above all committed to showing that his party is not condemned to palliative care. The boss of LR struggles. He launched a media, a shadow cabinet to respond to the Borne government as well as a training academy. This bulimia makes it possible to occupy the ground and to give the impression of intellectual bubbling. It is still necessary that this convalescent still have the resources to move. An LR adviser wonders: “Did the States General of Louis XVI save the Old Regime?”