Three weeks before the elections, the campaign intensifies. In the last two months, Bruno Retailleau and Laurent Wauquiez, both candidates for the Presidency of Republicans, have increased efforts to obtain the meeting of new members.
The deadline to join LR to designate its new president in mid -May expired this Thursday at midnight, opening a new stage in the battle of the right to which the Minister of the Interior and the deputies of LR are involved. The two candidates will be in BFMTV this Sunday, Laurent Wauquiez at 12 noon and Bruno Retailleau at 6 pm
Great uncertainty (shared)
“Nothing is played,” said one in both fields. In Laurent Wauquiez, because he “is not the favorite,” he acknowledges support. And in Bruno Retilleau, “because shouting the victory too fast would be frowned upon,” he said near the candidate-minister. But also “because memberships have been much more numerous than expected, and it is difficult to determine what this silent majority will vote,” analyzes a placement of the party.
The “battle of the letters” of LR voters is now completed, and the Electoral College that will arbitrate the party reaches an “unexpected” level, the two stables excite: the counter was arrested to 122,264 members this week, according to BFMTV.
“The correct resume colors”
This mobilization allows the two camps to agree on one point: this is good news for the law. “We arrive at approximately at the Primary Stadium 2021, before Pecresse was a candidate,” said a close friend of Laurent Wauquiez. “90,000, we would have already taken it as a great victory. It is a surprise, even if the results of the latest partial legislative elections told us a little. The correct resume the colors,” he adds.
The same satisfaction of an elected official near the former president of the Auverne-Rhône-Alpes region, which was still felt: “We are still floating to the right, but a flotation that has weight.”
The challenges also greet the dynamics that this election brings to the party, but also see the power of the Interior Minister’s resonance fund. “It is not so much the fact that he is Minister of the Interior, but his successes in the Ministry of Interior,” says the support of Vendéen. “Give hope to some LR voters who had fallen. We met who had not planned to join again, but who did it for him,” he said.
The Tour de France on the right
Each device analyzes, behind the scene, the number of memberships in each region, and tries to draw conclusions. In Laurent Wauquiez, we are satisfied with the amount of “cards” collected in the Auverne-Rhône-Alpes region (more than 20,000): “This is more than what the Retilleau team” expected. “We are still far from the plebiscite, in his own region …”, Claw an elected official near Bruno Retailleau, who wants to see in the memberships in île-de-france a movement for the minister-chandidat. “30,000 memberships are strong. We also see the leg of our followers, the president of the Valérie Pecresse region, as in the Hauts-de-France with Xavier Bertrand,” said this close to the minister.
However, Bruno Retilleau defends himself to being “the candidate of the barons”: “The main ones that prescribe the votes are no longer, there is no longer,” sweeps an elected official. “We were primary in activist sponsorships, that’s what matters,” said one of his supporters. Who adds: “But still, between (being) supported by all, and (not being) supported by anyone …”
Laurent Wauquiez team, in fact, is much less endowed with support identified by the media. A force ensures that one of his relatives, who mocks the barons: “It is not as if all these people had formed a machine to win in recent years … I copied, the presidential election of Putacresse …”.
Until the end, the little hands of the campaign make a “field campaign as close as possible to activists”: meetings of 100, 200 people, with buffet offered by the candidate, which assumes, as close as possible to the members.
A dead angle
To the uncertainty of the inclinations of the different regions, a last unexpected dead angle is added: the “15,000 to 20,000 members of the last minute, these last 10 days, which no one had seen coming,” acknowledges a relative of Laurent Wauquiez. “No one knows why they will vote.” “We or us,” admits the relatives of Bruno Retilleau.
Therefore, one of the main axes of this final section will be the battle of the great federations. With two favorite territories: île-de-France and the southeast, historical bastions of the correct family.
Laurent Wauquiez has planned several meetings in Canet, in Val d’Oise, in the Hauts-de-Seine again, before returning to his land in Lyon, according to our information, for his last meeting. On the back of Cannes, Bruno Retailleau also foresees other meetings in the Paris region, for the last straight line.
“Unclocked attack”
During the last days of the campaign, the teams are aimed at hardening the tone … without restoring the image of a family that is being destroyed, the movement was marked in 2024 by the division of its president, Eric Ciotti, who was ally with the RN. “You have to attack without unlocking,” summarizes a relative of Laurent Wauquiez.
“Because of reviving what our family has known. In addition, Bruno Retailleau is popular, it is counterproductive: Laurent continues to play the letter of the ‘duo’, one to the party, the other to the government,” added this hand of the campaign of the campaign of the leader of the deputies of LR.
“This will continue to be a very strong axis of the end of this campaign for Laurent: to repeat the members that Bruno Retilleau is avoided, hindered, because it is limited by solidarity in the Government. Retilleau, today is Macron, and is Bayrou … which called Royal against Sarkozy in 2007,” expanded one close to Laurent Wauquiez. Who admits, however, the position of the Interior Minister on the tensions between France and Algeria “made him score the points? But with what result? Two months ago, there was no party. But as … we will see if the members are satisfied with a benevolent doubt …”.
Even held in the blows to Bruno Retailleau, whose loved ones criticize, and shame, the “character” of Auvergnat and his ability to gather: “He contacted so many people on the back, he is his worst enemy,” says a field strategy. “You have to see what Barnier says about him, the sticks he put on the wheels of the right -wing family … How do you join with such personality?” He asks.
In Bruno Retailleau’s entourage, we recognize in amazement that Laurent Wauquiez’s proposal about Saint-Pierre-Et-Miququelon “won points with the electorate LR.” The deputy proposed to “lock” in Saint-Pierre-Et-Malalon the dangerous people under the obligation to leave the territory (OQTF) who refuses to return to his country.
2027 in mind
However, Bruno Retailleau’s entourage judges that this proposal, which made controversy from the left to the presidential field, “disqualifies it to win.” Win the presidency of LRS or the Presidency?
The “continuation” is already in the head of the two stables. “In a year, let’s redo the same elections. Neither is strong enough at this stage, to be a natural candidate by 2027,” analyzes a close to Laurent Wauquiez. “And the result of this presidency will change anything. The two will be candidates.”
“Bruno does not say ‘never’, he doesn’t have the virus. But if he wins and is better located, of course he will be a candidate,” abounds in a relative of Bruno Retailleau.
“That is why we are all going to be very friendly, take the photo of the family what happens to the end of this campaign. Because as of May 19, the next field begins,” he adds.
Source: BFM TV
