Virginie Calmels is not disarmed. Her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination process was certainly publicly invalidated last Monday by the party’s high authority, but the former first deputy mayor of Bordeaux still intends to participate. She allows, if necessary, to take the case to court to assert what she considers to be her right. This is what she declares in the number of the JDD this Sunday, criticizing a “sharp move” aimed at sweeping away his centrist line in favor of more right-wing positions.
And the confrontation that follows triggers a new dispute between the Republicans, which may last for several weeks. The first round of elections is scheduled for next December 3 and 4 and the list of candidates will not be finalized until October 2. At the moment, there are three in competition: Éric Ciotti, Aurélien Pradié and Bruno Retailleau.
Calmels asks the high authority to “acknowledge their mistakes”
During the interview she gave to the Sunday weekly, Virginie Calmels was furious: “I give time (to the high authority, editor’s note) to recompose themselves and recognize their mistakes to validate my candidacy.” Otherwise, “reserves the right to take legal action.”
At the heart of the dispute between him and the authorities of his in-laws, there is first a question of contribution and chronology. He thus underlines that the high authority contradicted his candidacy announcement -on August 23- of August 27 by mail, before the decision was made public two days later. According to the high authority, the former head of the Endemol group was not up to date with the prices of July 22, a deficiency that made his candidacy inadmissible. However, Virginie Calmels questions both the plot and the process.
The file in the hands of your lawyer
He thus ensures that he renewed his contribution on November 1, 2021, extending his membership in his training until October 31. “For the purposes of the case, they do not hesitate to change the rules and maintain that only those who paid in the first half of 2022 are up to date with their contributions,” he accuses.
Before possibly going to court, he has already entrusted the case to his lawyer. “My lawyer immediately responded to the party’s high authority with a three-page letter proving the validity of my candidacy,” he specifies, deploring the silence that opposed him: “The high authority did not see fit to respond to date. about the substance of my lawyer’s detailed legal argument, proof that she cannot refute our arguments.
The goal? “Put Laurent Wauquiez Into Orbit”
“The party really needs to be cleaned up of these sad shenanigans,” he judges. “Antics” that would serve, according to the Girondine, a transparent political objective: to exclude from the debates the liberal and centrist line that she embodies in order to promote a more right-wing discourse. “Au-delà de mon cas particulier, l’objectif de la manœuvre est clear: il s’agit de priver de leurs droits les très nombreux adherents que étaient mobilisés pour la primaire de 2021, gagnée par Valérie Pécresse”, lance-t- she.
The one who was vice president of Laurent Wauquiez in 2017 before being fired a few months later in a context of ideological differences still denounces an “ax blow” and “abrupt maneuvers” before continuing:
“It seems to me that a well-oiled scenario was written in advance, consisting of installing Eric Ciotti as party president to put Laurent Wauquiez into orbit by 2027.”
And by disavowing the doctrine endorsed by her opponent, Virginie Calmels hits hard, evoking a “very right-wing and deadly exclusionary line.” “I don’t want LR to become a clan and end up as backup to Zemmour or Marine Le Pen,” she insists.
Source: BFM TV
