The gold of power yes, but how long? Chosen in an armchair this Sunday, May 18 at the head of the Republicans (LR), the new president of the right, who advances with caution around 2027, will have to quickly look at his strategy to officially embark on the presidential race.
“Being in the government is not synonymous with confusion,” said Interior Minister in an interview published by Le Parisien this Thursday, May 22. “I am and remain a gaullist. Not a macronist. But the question of the participation of LR is not perpetuated: if ever, our convictions were no longer respected as well as the idea that we have the fundamental interests of the nation, we would leave the government.
“It will always remain that you will have your freedom of conviction and can act. The day this is no longer the case, you will draw the consequences,” summarizes Senator LR, Max Brisson, one of his faithful to the upper room.
Inspiration of Nicolas Sarkozy
“It will necessarily go at some point. He is not married to François Bayrou and even less with Emmanuel Macron. They should not at all,” summarizes, more direct, a ministerial collaborator.
There are several strategies available for Bruno Retailleau, starting with that of taking his steps in those of Nicolas Sarkozy, who appeared with him on Tuesday during a ceremony in tribute to a municipal police woman killed by the Redoine Faïd command in 2010.
To embark on his conquest of the Elysée, who was then the UMP head had not hesitated to play the letter of the break. At that time, the method had allowed Nicolas Sarkozy to distance Jacques Chirac in power for years.
“A shock” to leave
If the context has changed, Bruno Retailleau must also demonstrate that he is not accountant for Emmanuel Macron’s evaluation. Invited by his former competitor Laurent Wauquiez to express himself in front of LR deputies on Tuesday, Interior Minister did not pretend.
“It was very clear. The return to the government was a university decision, which also left. And we do not intend to remain there forever,” reports a participant.
However, it remains to find the right time to leave. There are several options on the table, beginning with the possible censorship of François Bayrou in the fall, which would force all his ministers to resign in the process.
“I am not a fan of the idea. It means that his departure would drown among all the others,” observes a LR senator.
“To organize your resignation, you need a shock that shows that it is prevented, that you do not have your hands free,” he shares a chosen LR.
“Retilleau can say that it is prevented from doing”
Two subjects could offer this opportunity: the strengthening of the powers of the Municipal Police, a text carried by the right arm of Bruno Retilleau François-Noël Buffet inside.
In the menu: the possibility especially for the Municipal Police to go to the field of the National Police by controlling, for example, the identities or to be able to issue fines for drug users.
If this text is presented to the Council of Ministers at the end of June, it is not yet on the Parliament Agenda.
“I am not sure that François Bayrou fights for what can tighten part of the macronists and the left. If nothing happens, Retilleau can say that we prevent him from doing,” says a ministerial advisor.
Be careful “to political blows in Gabriel Attal”
Another opportunity: discussions up the budget in a context of searching for all savings. “If François Bayrou talks about increasing taxes, he will go to the manner” The president of me, the taxes will be stable. I can’t support it, “says an ex-lr period.
But the question of leaving the government with an accident is not unanimous to the right, both in the method and in the substance.
“What the French appreciate in him is his sincerity, his coherence, that he is not in the permanent movement. He must maintain his serenity,” senator Jer Jean-François Husson.
More effective, one of his colleagues judges who “if he begins to make political blows in the Attal of Gabriel, will work much less well with our voters.”
Find your place outside the government
As for its place in political life once outside the government, it will remain to write, with the risk of becoming presidential among many others in the competition. “There, we see it everywhere because it is in Beauvau but once returned to the Senate, it can be very different,” said an elected Parisian.
“Why do you want me to go out when I am at the helm?” I was already wondering in the middle of the LR campaign, one of his relatives, Senator Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio.
Suffice it to say that once he raised his resignation, Bruno Retilleau should return very quickly to the field so as not to be forgotten. Among the possible options to remain in the head of the French, you could foresee a Tour of France. Enough to obtain voters for municipal elections next March while feed on field exchanges for their future program.
Enough to silence the ambitions of other lieutenants of their camp such as David Lisnard and Xavier Bertrand that push him to organize an open primary to have his possibilities too?
Source: BFM TV
