The majority has finally designated a head of list for the European elections which are to take place in June. The Renew MEP, Valérie Hayer, was chosen to wear the colors of the presidential camp in this electoral battle which promises to be difficult against Jordan Bardella, whom the polls show as the winner. The decision took a long time and there was a lot of hesitation.
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Valérie Hayer is not Emmanuel Macron’s first choice. Before deciding, the president explored several options: Bruno Le Maire, Julien Denormandie, Jean-Yves Le Drian in particular. The drawn-out reshuffle also slowed down the designation process. A Renaissance MP regrets that “ this gives the impression of a default choice “.
But at the end of the day, it’s a new face who enters the track. Valérie Hayer is young, she is 37 years old, she joined Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and became a European MP in 2019.
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When Stéphane Séjourné, the boss of the Renew group in Strasbourg, was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, she succeeded him. Valérie Hayer is “ respected » in the European Parliament. A Modem elected official describes it as “ hardworking, not techno and grounded » in a territory where she was elected as a centrist local. She comes from Mayenne and from a family of farmers, which is not a negligible asset when tackling a campaign launched in the midst of an agricultural crisis.
His handicap is a lack of notoriety. A minister describes it as “ an absolute unknown “, another compensates by estimating that it is ” harder to catch for Bardella than a big figure from Macronie “. The majority ultimately plays the skill card against the RN.
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