PECRESS. Valérie Pécresse must say goodbye to her presidential ambition. In addition to the disappointment, the Republican candidate who won less than 5% of the vote must reimburse her campaign. Personally in debt, she appealed for donations.
[Mis à jour le 11 avril à 15h45] Cold shower for The Republicans. Candidate Valérie Pécresse was eliminated from the presidential election in the first round on Sunday April 10. Worse than the defeat, the sad score recorded by the boss of Île-de-France deals the fatal blow to the political formation of the right: 4.8% of the vote, very far behind Emmanuel Macron (27.84%) , Marine Le Pen (23.15%) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (21.95%). Even the Reconquest candidate! Eric Zemmour rose ahead of her with 7% of the vote. This historically low score marks a turning point for the right, which is trying by all means to remobilize and survive after this catastrophic defeat.
Added to the political survival of the Republicans is another problem: financial survival. With a score lower than 5% which gives the right to reimbursement of part of the presidential campaign, the political formation will have to finance from its own pocket all the costs incurred, in particular the seven million euros which were to be covered by the State. . The payment promises to be complicated according to the declarations of the policies labeled LR and Valérie Pécresse. The unsuccessful candidate in the first round of the presidential election indicated on Monday April 11 that she was “personally in debt to the tune of five million euros”. The politician also launched a national appeal for donations to raise seven million euros and complete the financing of the campaign by May 15.
4.8% of votes for Valérie Pécresse, historically low score for the Republicans
It is a record which the right would not have done well. The Republicans have always figured in the top quartet of the presidential election and above all they have never obtained less than 10% of the vote. With just 4.8% of the vote, the political family seems to have one foot in the grave, especially when the comparison is made with the scores of the candidates placed ahead of Valérie Pécresse: Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon all obtained scores higher than 20% of the votes. Even Eric Zemmour, the second far-right candidate with no solid support in politics, did better with 7% of the vote.
The fall of the party began in 2017 when Marine Le Pen won for the first time in the second round against Emmanuel Macron leaving François Fillon at the foot of the podium. Five years later, Valérie Pécresse has failed to restore the Republican party and the right to its leading position in the French political landscape. The candidate, however, had everything to succeed at the start of her campaign, in particular the attraction of novelty and she presented herself as the “surprise” of the 2022 presidential election. The declarations were to be good omens but between a breathless dynamic and the influence of the “useful vote” in the face of the extremes, in particular the extreme right, it was a bad surprise that the Republicans experienced on the evening of the first round.
Valérie Pécresse, eliminated and in debt by her presidential campaign
The pulverization of the right is not the only problem encountered by candidate Pécresse and the Republican party. Without exceeding 5%, they must give up the seven million euros provided by the State to reimburse part of the campaign costs, a scenario that the Republicans had not foreseen, who expected, at worst, to record between 8 and 10% of the votes according to Jean Rottner, the LR president of the Grand-Est. The right has until May 15 to reimburse Valérie Pécresse’s entire campaign, but the party’s funds will not be enough. Consequently, the day after the first round of the presidential election, candidate LR “launched a national appeal for donations, to all those who gave me their vote, who preferred the useful vote and to all French people who are attached to political pluralism”.
Valérie Pécresse insisted on the urgency for the traditional right and specified that she had herself been in debt to the tune of five million”. If the declaration of assets – valued at nearly 10 million euros – of the candidate revealed the financial well-being of the boss of Île-de-France, this debt remains difficult to sustain.
Valérie Pécresse will vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round
“If I am not in the second round, I will never give voting instructions”, announced Valérie Pécresse on April 8 on France Inter. The candidate kept her word and refrained from telling voters who to vote for, but she clarified, on a personal level, that she will vote for Emmanuel Macron “in conscience” and this “to prevent the coming to power of Le Pen and the resulting chaos”. Only, all Republicans may not follow his example.
During the crisis meeting organized within the right-wing party on Monday April 11, the voting instructions to be given to voters were on the agenda. The politicians proceeded by vote and by an overwhelming majority, 116 votes out of 130, they decided to follow the example given by Jean-Luc Mélenchon the day before. “No voice should be on Marine Le Pen”, declared Christian Jacob, president of the political formation at the end of the meeting. If LR rises against Marine Le Pen in the tradition of the republican front, he does not explicitly call for a vote for Emmanuel Macron, even if the orientation of the vote of the elected officials in the second round is not in doubt. This momentum behind the outgoing president does not reflect membership but only opposition to the far right. “Emmanuel Macron wants to lead us towards a single party that is dangerous for democracy. Through this strategy, he has contributed to raising votes of despair. Our political family has always been, has remained an opponent of the National Rally. to Marine Le Pen. The Republicans are neither fungible in [le lepénisme] nor in macronism. There is a third way”, also assured the boss of the LR.
Earlier in the day, it was Laurent Wauquiez, the LR president of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes who spoke on the subject and called for “respect” for everyone’s choice, between those who will vote Macron and those who will vote. White. “No one is calling to vote for Marine Le Pen, some for Macron, others do not choose. It is absolutely necessary to respect this diversity. Let’s not try to set up one camp against another, let’s not teach each other lessons, let us know how to build a common position which brings us together without excluding anyone”, he declared, seeking to limit the already numerous fractures within the right.