The candidates officially in the race for the presidency of the Les Républicains (LR) party will be announced this Thursday night, the day of the deadline for the presentation of sponsorships. Little suspense: Éric Ciotti, Bruno Retailleau and Aurélien Pradié will compete for leadership during this congress.
Other candidates wanting to keep the party going, such as the former number 2 of the party Virginie Calmels or the mayor of Orleans Serge Grouard, have finally decided to throw in the towel.
There will therefore be three who present themselves to the vote of the militants. A first time on December 3 and 4 and then on December 10 and 11 for a possible second round between the first two candidates if none of them has obtained an absolute majority of the votes cast.
No “highlights”
So much for the shape. For the rest, it is clear that the election does not fascinate the crowds. Nothing to do with the duels Jean-François Copé-François Fillon in 2012 or Bruno Le Maire-Nicolas Sarkozy in 2014.
“The main leaders of the right, those who are already thinking about the 2027 elections [comme] Xavier Bertrand and Laurent Wauquiez decided to pass their turn, convinced that the party was no longer fit for the conquest of power”, explains Benjamin Duhamel.
“It does not offend the three candidates to say that they are not, or have recently become, leading figures,” continues our political columnist, stressing in passing “a symbol of the lack of incarnation and leadership of the right.”
Less political weight
The recent context is no stranger to this: LR is recovering from a historic berezina. During the last presidential elections, his candidate Valérie Pécresse only managed to collect 4.7% of the votes. Which also led her to launch a campaign to solicit donations to reimburse her campaign costs.
With 62 seats obtained, LR then saved the furniture during the last legislative elections in June, even obtaining an unexpected pivotal role against the presidential majority.
However, as Benjamin Duhamel points out, it is now “relegated behind the National Rally (89 MPs) and La France insoumise (75 MPs)”. This despite the fact that LR was the first opposition force during the last legislature. So many reasons why the election of the future president of the party arouses very little enthusiasm.
Source: BFM TV
