A meteoric ascent in less than nine months: the Interior Minister appointed in September 2024, Bruno Retilleau became this Sunday, May 18, president of the Les Répudicins party, largely ahead of Laurent Wauquiez with 74.31% of the vote, against 25.69% for his opponent. In a party that has the chief’s culture, this victory opens the doors to a request for the next presidential elections in 2027.
“Nothing is done, much can still happen by then, but we have spent a first step with a successful orbit in orbit,” a LR senator smiles.
Of a stranger to a favorite
On paper, nothing was won. Already candidate in December 2022 against Éric Ciotti to become president of the LR, Bruno Retilleau had competed well, without, however, to succeed in overcoming his status as a stranger.
His competitor had won with a promise: to make Laurent Wauquiez the champion on the right for the presidential election of 2027. Since then, the deputy of the Maritime Alps has left the movement to bring Marine Le Pen to the last legislative elections, leaving the place.
While Laurent Wauquiez returned to the national scene, becoming head of the deputies of LR. For a long time, he was the only candidate in the Presidency race, before finally losing his leadership. Bruno Retailleau’s appointment, unknown to the general public, inside attracts all eyes.
“All eyes turn to Bruno”
Laurent Wauquiez would also have seen Beauvau, but the new Prime Minister Michel Barnier preferred to sell in Auverne. As for Bercy, proposed to the latter, it was not. The situation benefits Bruno Retilleau. Here is in the controls of an emergency ministry, in full light.
“The interior is night and day, all the time, in all the news. Inevitably, we only see you. Even if the Parliament has become central again, it has nothing to do. Obviously all the eyes turn to Bruno and that Laurent is almost transparent,” says a LR senator.
Laurent Wauquiez still believes in his fate, especially because an agreement is supposed to link the two men, he will explain later. In Bruno Retailleau, Minister’s post, his party. Did the head of LR deputies sin for excess naivety?
While the rumor became persistent, the elected official of Puy-en-Velay tried to deter his future opponent during a dinner, warning him about the risk of a “boss war.” An evocative term that leads the right to the bad memories of internal epic clashes to remake Fillon-Copé in 2012.
“It was his time”
The. The first of the movement for France, for a long time to the founder of the Sovereignist Party Philippe de Villiers, embarks on the race on February 12.
“Could it really tell the truth? He goes up in the surveys, he is proud after 12 years in the opposition. It was his time, he grabbed him,” said a deputy of LR.
But there is no doubt, he said immediately, to “lend himself to the game of small prayers.”
The next day, Laurent Wauquiez formalizes his candidacy, with the firm intention of stopping the impulse of his opponent. As? When multiplying the trip to make a “in the Chirac” campaign, near activists with at least two meetings per day. And above all, by maintaining a strategy that could not be clearer: aim at the freedom of expression and action of Bruno Retilleau in the Ministry of Interior, due to lack of great disagreement in the lower part between these two figures of the hard right.
“He has no 150 options to win. Therefore, he chooses the simplest: to say that the minister does not have a margin of action in Beauvau and that he is condemned to fail and to work with François Bayrou, near Emmanuel Macron, he is not right,” said a mayor of LR.
Shock
The aim of demonstrating that in case of victory to the presidency of LR, the right would win a completely free word, yours, at the head of the party. And there is no shortage of opportunities: tensions between France and Algeria, while Bruno Retailleau wants to promote at the end of the 1968 agreements between the two countries, the appointment of Richard Ferrand to the Constitutional Council, the attacks against penitentiary establishments in France …
Everything is good to oppose the Executive and through him to Bruno Retailleau, sometimes forced to respect a certain solidarity of the government. In front, the sixty and year of age remains outstanding, content to defend its evaluation, of which it recognizes “certain limits” on April 10, due to lack of “parliamentary majority”, while guaranteeing “overcome every day as impossible.”
Certainly, Bruno Retilleau does not have a new immigration law, as expected. But you can give your credit at the end of circular Valls to facilitate the regularization of undocumented workers, a hardened tone for the naturalization of foreigners or the vote of the bill on drug trafficking, initiated when it was still in the Senate.
Wauquiez “Les Gros Sabots”
It is not very common from the floors of La Voz, the former head of the Senators of LR sometimes leaves his reserve, like this Wednesday, March 12 in RTL. In response to Laurent Wauquiez’s peaks, he ends up letting go: “Little me.
Laurent Wauquiez’s proposal to “enclose” dangerous “under the coup of an obligation to leave the French territory (OQTF) in Saint-Pierre-Et-Miququelon, this French archipelago located in Canada, again gives him the opportunity to respond. The Interior Minister first distances himself from a proposal in” confusing the first view. “
“I want to say it because my political family comes from gaullism and I am very attached to him: Saint-Pierre-Et-Miquelon is the first French territory that has joined the free France of Gaulle General.
Laurent Wauquiez persists and signs, making this measure the proof of its activism that opposes the “Marquis of the thought thought”, without much score in the spirits.
“I discovered that I summed up the game. One that responds at the bottom and the other that puts its large helmets and that says that if we are against, we are only an idiot,” claw of a LR senator.
“Powerful balls”
But Laurent Wauquiez continues to fight and convince LR activists, accused Bruno Retilleau in early May of a possible approach with former Emmanuel Macron prime minister, Édouard Philippe for the presidential elections of 2027.
The hypothesis can be dismissed by the former senator who admits, however, have “respect” and “esteem” for him, some of his supporters mention him and those of the owner of Horizons.
“When Laurent Wauquiez accuses him of wanting to retire in favor of Edouard Philippe, it is the stinky ball that can yield problems among LR activists,” acknowledges a chosen LR.
On the other side of the ring, Bruno Retailleau draws his route. He even pays the luxury of a meeting with more than 2,000 people in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) on May 11. We know the rest of the story.
A Government departure in the air
Now comfortably chosen at the head of the LR, the most difficult will begin for him. Starting with having a solid evaluation inside. With a limited action power, caught between François Bayrou and an assembly without most, the sixty -so many can be united if it remains in Beauvau permanently.
“At one point, the collapse will act, that’s safe. But you have to find the right time. If you hit the door too early, it will give the impression that you have not tried enough. If it is still too much, you will have problems saying that you could not do what you would like,” summarizes a rebirth agent approved by the right.
Can the equation be very complicated: can Bruno Retailleau really remain in the minds of the French once he is no longer a minister? The question is complete, especially because it is far from folding the party in the surveys for the presidential elections. At the moment, the former senator raises about 10% of the votes, which does not allow him to qualify in the second round.
“Bowers start the next day”
“It is known because it is in Beauvau. If you return to the Senate, people will quickly forget it, especially because, even if you won the presidency, the knives will quickly come out,” translates a chosen LR.
The president of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand, Cannes Mayor David Lisnard and even Laurent Wauquiez, who could maintain his ambitions of Elysianas … The internal competition page officially became internal competition, the question of the designation of the future LR candidate for the presidential will take charge.
“I wanted the job, you will have to show that you know how to break our lost machine,” summarized a LR senator at the beginning of April. A right -won deputy is direct. “We are still happy on the night of victory, but the Bothers start the next day.”
Source: BFM TV
