Laurent Wauquiez formalized his candidacy for the Presidency of LR, upset by that of Bruno Retailleau. The war of the chiefs began.
Laurent Wauquiez is angry. The indiscretions of the political press suggesting that he was furious at the candidacy of Bruno Retailleau as the presidency of LR are not inappropriate rumors. It is even quite clear: his bad humor and his annoyance with regard to his new rival appear to The interview he gave to Le Figaro This Thursday, February 13. Interview which he even undoubtedly asked, after a strategic advice of the party organized in the morning.
“For the right to rebuild itself, we must work together. So far, we have been complementary between, on the one hand, the action of ministers to the government and, on the other hand, the work of refoundation that I Led to the party, “he said in the newspaper, using a past in the use of his conjugation, which will not leave Bruno Retailleau indifferent. “The party needs everything except a war of chiefs and I did everything to avoid it,” he insists.
Another little spade addressed to his opponent in the race for the presidency of LR: “France needs Bruno Retailleau to succeed in regaining hands on delinquency and immigration. France needs an interior minister at full time, “he said. And for things to be well understood, the boss of LR deputies makes a singular account of his recent political action: “In June, I took my responsibilities by leaving for the legislative elections. I went to fight to defend our ideas while Our party was in a blocking situation after the departure of Eric Ciotti.
Not sure that Bruno Retailleau has the same vision of this soap opera and the providential role of Laurent Wauquiez. The Parisian reports in any case that the minister avoided public dispute, and kept his cold blood this morning in a party meeting, despite an electric atmosphere. “Who talked about the war? Not me!” Launched the Minister of the Interior, who judged that everyone had to respect the “statutes” and “the rules” of the party for the candidacy for the presidency.
If Laurent Wauquiez is Furax, it was because he thought that a deal linked him with Bruno Retailleau. The two men recently dined together, and according to the indiscretions of Politico and BFMTV, Laurent Wauquiez would have clarified his way of seeing things: “There was an agreement between us, it’s up to you to embody the right in government, to me rebuild our political family “. The Minister of the Interior obviously did not consider that he had to bind his hands. “If he has forgotten, or if he wants to lie it is his problem,” annoyed a relative of Laurent Wauquiez, with Politico.
It seems that in politics, the friendships come and go, become and break … The minister, at the beginning of 2025, is not fooled by tensions that emerge with his own candidacy. Proof of this is, his response full of irony to a BFMTV journalist who asked him yesterday if Laurent Wauquiez had called him to “congratulate him” from the announcement of his candidacy: “You have humor!” As for the resentment of the boss of the deputies, Bruno Retailleau knows that it is only a minor, even passenger obstacle. “If an election is a source of division, it is necessary to do something else and go to plant turnips”, summarizes a member of the entourage of Bruno Retailleau in BFMTV.