The Les Républicains (LR) party is kicking off its campaign for the legislative elections this weekend of May 7-8 by bringing together its National Council in Paris. But the battle promises to be difficult and the troops are worried and divided after the third consecutive defeat of the right in the presidential election.
LR now has 101 deputies. It is the first opposition group in the National Assembly. But what will remain of it on June 19, the evening of the second round of the next legislative elections? ” In 2017, despite François Fillon’s 20%, the right took a beating in the legislative elections “Recalls a president of the LR region. ” This time it’s gonna be even worse “, she predicts after the 4.8% of Valérie Pécresse in the first round of the 2022 presidential election.
Moreover, several dozen candidates invested by Les Républicains have finally thrown in the towel in recent weeks. They do not want to pay the pots for the presidential election or end up in personal debt if they do not reach the 5% necessary to be reimbursed by the State for their campaign costs. As for those who go to battle, they erase the party logo from their posters, betting everything on their local roots.
How to save your skin?
Within the LR deputies, two camps oppose on the behavior to adopt to save his skin. The official and majority line within the party is to remain independent. No question of joining the presidential majority or of spawning with the extreme right. The boss of the party, Christian Jacob, repeats it tirelessly: there will be no dual membership. ” We can’t be LR and presidential majoritywe cannot be LR and Reconquest (Éric Zemmour’s far-right partynote), we cannot be LR and Horizons (the party of Édouard Philippe, ally of Emmanuel Macron, note) “, he hammered again this week. It is also the line defended by the right wing and by the young guard of LR who would like to get their hands on the party after the legislative elections.
.@the Republicans are fungible neither in macronism nor in lepenism. We carry our own voice, that of an independent & popular right
This voice, our candidates for the legislative elections will carry it by defending the territories, by meeting the expectations of the French pic.twitter.com/PSQmNHqSaA
— Christian JACOB (@ChJacob77) April 26, 2022
Other LR deputies are considering tying themselves to the presidential majority. The former President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozyhas been working behind the scenes for months to negotiate a coalition agreement with Emmanuel Macron. The Head of State would have received it this week at the Élysée. And several LR figures have also defended this idea: mayors, regional presidents, and even the party treasurer, Daniel Fasquelle. ” You have to be smart. If Emmanuel Macron proposes a pension reform, it should not be opposed just because it comes from him “Says the mayor of Le Touquet, who finally gave up running for the legislative elections. ” When we look at the results of our candidate in the first round of the presidential election, we cannot say that everything is fine and that nothing will change. “, he asserts.
► To read also: LREM becomes “Renaissance”, within a confederation for the legislative elections
Apothecary’s hesitations and calculations
For several weeks, the right has been whispering that around twenty outgoing LR deputies would be ready to take the plunge and join the presidential majority. By ideological proximity, but above all by local electoral calculation. There are those who, in contact with Macronist ministers from the right, hope not to have a majority candidate in front of them. And those who are thinking squarely about taking the colors of the presidential majority.
Deputy Robin Reda, former spokesperson for Valérie Pécresse and candidate in Essonne, remains ambiguous: “ I think we have to find points of agreement. I am not qualified today to tell you if it is in a majority, in association with a majority or in a constructive opposition. The Republicans, in any case, cannot wall themselves in a strategy of independence that does not carry a political project. »
Macron has the keys
And what will Emmanuel Macron do? This is what remains to be known. For several weeks, the 80 or so LR deputies who are candidates for re-election have been sniffing each other, testing the waters, doing their calculations at the local level, hesitating. Everyone negotiates in their own corner and everyone is in the dark. Will there be a coordinated movement of LR deputies towards macronie? According to the newspaper Le Figarothey would ultimately be less than 10 outgoing LR deputies to seek their succession under the colors of the presidential majority in June.
On the other hand, how many LR deputies will be spared in their constituency? Which ? With what consideration? One of the first to have carried the idea of working with Emmanuel Macron, the deputy of Yonne Guillaume Larrivé, finally has a walking deputy in front of him. It is in the coming days, by revealing the cast of his government and especially all the candidates invested by his confederation of parties for the legislative elections, that Emmanuel Macron will give the first tracks of this act 2 of the political recomposition.