An almost tiptoe return. Very silent for almost two years, Laurent Wauquiez speaks this Sunday in Valence during the summer campus of the Young Republicans. Enough to console some of his followers who find it long.
“We are all very eager to hear it. I am sure it will give us hope in a very complicated period,” one of his closest friends, Nicolas Daragon, mayor of LR de Valence, tells BFMTV.com.
Get out of the forest
“It will sweep away all the issues, we will not be far from a general policy speech,” hopes even the movement’s youth leader, Guilhem Carayon.
Is it urgent that the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region takes control? In the midst of the stagnation of his political family, torn for many weeks by the pension reform, Laurent Wauquiez was content with just a few words during his wishes at the end of January.
Enough to seriously upset even his most loyal followers, including Éric Ciotti, the movement’s number one, who would not have said no to a little help. Same story on the riot issue.
Walks and Facebook posts.
In addition to a notable appearance on Saturday at the congress of the Association of Rural Mayors of France (AMRF), those who believe in it by 2027 had to content themselves in recent months with an interview in Spot and in Figaro and videos on his YouTube channel. Answering questions on radio or television is out of the question.
At the beginning of September, the man who spent his holidays on the roads of Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle enjoyed a walk to Mont Mézenc, straddling the Haute-Loire and the Ardèche, surrounded by his followers, but without giving a speech.
Because the herald of the right has chosen discretion and prefers to multiply the “immersions” in people’s daily lives, from a visit to a supermarket to a visit to a fire station, which he faithfully recreates in long posts on Facebook.
“Leaving too soon makes no sense”
Enough to last until the next presidential campaign?
“Le but n’est pas de faire des petites phrases que personne ne retiendra mais d’être prêt à apporter des solutions aux Français quand le moment viendra. Partir trop tôt avant la présidentielle n’a aucun sens”, advance l’un de their loved ones.
“Don’t give the impression that he’s lazy.”
Some, however, are beginning to doubt. A poll Opinion route for The Parisian However, it places him in fifth place among the personalities capable of uniting the right and then the center, far behind Édouard Philippewhich comes first.
“Don’t talk a lot, yes, don’t talk at all… We must not give the impression that he is lazy and that he has disappeared while working in his region,” summarizes one supporter.
“Silence is the strategy he has chosen. Is it going to work? I don’t know. They don’t like us very much anymore and we talk mainly to people with white hair. It’s a risky bet,” he still admits. of his closest friends, Senator LR Étienne Blanc.
Marine Le Pen as an example
Before highlighting that the election of Laurent Wauquiez is very similar to that of… Marine Le Pen.
“He speaks little and when he does he chooses the time and tone. In general, he impresses, he is successful, we understand him, we remember him,” analyzes Étienne Blanc.
“We are not going to say that what the RN does is our model, but obviously Laurent Wauquiez looks at what works in others, of course,” acknowledges a local elected member who supports him.
“An unsolvable equation”
Among those close to him, to convince people of the effectiveness of his strategy, we like to remember that the favorites of the elections that will be held very soon are rarely tenants of the Elysée, citing Édouard Balladur and Alain Juppé.
But behind, some are putting pressure, like the mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, who is also considered a right-wing candidate. Sarkozy, who rarely skimps on witticisms, summed up the feeling among some of the LR troops, accusing the regional president of “playing small” and running “the risk of failing” with the Parisian last August.
Laurent Wauquiez’s dilemma is summed up even better by an LR deputy: “Either you are everywhere and have a target on your back, or you don’t take risks, with the fear of having been forgotten in 2026 by the time you leave. It’s a insoluble equation.”
Source: BFM TV
