Europeans: David Lisnard expresses his “essential and vital” support for François-Xavier Bellamy

David Lisnard, LR mayor of Cannes and president of Nouvelle Énergie, was next to François-Xavier Bellamy Monday evening in Paris to affirm his “essential and vital” support in the European campaign of the Republican candidate. On the first floor of the Beaubourg café, a stone's throw from the Pompidou Center, the two men agreed on the symbolic choice of the location in memory of the former President of the Republic, "France's best economist, literary, teacher... who succeeded in raising France to the heights after de Gaulle”, recalls the southern mayor before recalling that Pompidou was also the one who affirmed that we were “European by being French”.

David Lisnard wants his candidate to achieve “the best possible score both for France to be heard in the European Parliament and for the future of France”. This public support is not a real surprise as the men are used to working together regularly as part of the work they carry out in particular with Hervé Morin, president of the Centrists. “I have been following François-Xavier for years and from the start, I have admired his talent and skill.”

Speaking of the European elections as a “crucial” moment, Lisnard invites the right to “initiate a new hope” and to lead a “fight for freedom”. Bellamy will take up this ambition of “freedom” as a major issue in this election. Or how to escape from an increasingly normatively restrictive Europe by drawing a new vision of the European Union based on fewer texts and more international cooperation, while respecting national sovereignty.

Freedom, efficiency, dignity, subsidiarity… Lisnard sets objectives and formulates a promise: “Today, what carries us, what guides us, is the desire to be useful to our country which has everything in the 21st century to be a radiant power. He pleads for this election to be an opportunity for the right to lay the “first stone of hope in the face of a crisis of democracy”. For the mayor of Cannes, “French downgrading and European downgrading are not inevitable”. Welcoming Bellamy's fights in Brussels, "against the Hijab" for example or facing the "disaster" of energy policy, David Lisnard explains: "We are leading this fight because we are convinced that the principles which are ours are at the heart expectations of our compatriots. Then he unfolds the triptych of the progressive rebound that he hopes for his political family: “audible”, “credible”, “electible”.

The support of Bellamy, to whom presidential ambitions are sometimes attributed, also outlines prospects beyond the June 9 election which, according to him, constitutes a “step towards the renewal of the country”, from 2027.

The candidate for his part is delighted with these marks of esteem and sees in Pompidou more than “nostalgia”, an “ambition”. “Today, our country is in the process of failing… We can look in the figure of Pompidou for the keys to building ourselves and the key is the one that you have carried with determination for so long, it is freedom.” François-Xavier Bellamy takes the opportunity to blame Emmanuel Macron to whom he attributes the ambition to “further strengthen European centralization” and “to go ever further in the spiral of public spending”. Anyone who refuses to see the European elections as a “national referendum” opposes the Macronist approach with an LR project consisting of “regaining confidence and freedom”. In front of David Lisnard, who is also president of the Association of Mayors of France, the candidate draws a parallel between what local elected officials experience today and European constraints.

“Our own fragility comes from ourselves. The intensity of control, of distrust, of surveillance, of the generalized asphyxiation of our society… We want to leave a Europe of norms and enter a Europe of collective strategies,” maintains the head of the LR list.

A few weeks before the election, the LR list is still estimated between 7% and 8% of voting intentions. And the two elected officials are aware of the difficulty. But saying he is fully engaged in the “battle”, David Lisnard wants to believe that the choices of right-wing voters are not crystallized and that they will end up being sensitive to the “principles” defended by LR. An activist sees positive signals coming from the field where activists would have an appetite for Bellamy's qualities and the density of his speech.

Also, the rejection of Emmanuel Macron in public opinion and the difficult campaign of his candidate Valérie Hayer, whom the LR candidate now believes to be “lost”, could open up perspectives. David Lisnard thinks that the price of work will eventually pay off and concludes: “We always want to win, always be in front but we will only be in front stone by stone, by being consistent. And what we want to build is this coherence.”