In Le Touquet, the right seeks to mobilize a doubting France

More than 200 Republican activists were waiting for Éric Ciotti on Thursday evening at Le Touquet. The party president had planned to mobilize the troops around the “work” theme, as part of a new stage of the right-wing states general. Daniel Fasquelle, well-established mayor of Le Touquet and treasurer of the LR party, presents his department as the “Gallic village” of the right where “César has a second home”, he quips, referring to the President of the Republic. A department of Pas-de-Calais where, underlines Fasquelle, the LR came first in the last senatorial elections, while the Hauts-de-France region is chaired by LR Xavier Bertrand.

The day before, the mayor had observed the number of people registered for the event as a sign of a certain excitement. “The activists are coming back to us. There is a real expectation, a real need. People know that Macron will not run again and see that Gabriel Attal doesn't work. A space becomes freed from which and the LRs are perceived as a point of reference. And I see things that no longer happened,” says the elected official.

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Tangible reality or Coué method? The reflections collected Thursday evening within this activist base gathered on the Opal Coast reveal a political family impatient to finally see the right bounce back five months before the European elections, while the polls do not yet indicate any momentum. “There is always a gap between opinion measurements and the field,” reassures Daniel Fasquelle, who wants to believe that François-Xavier Bellamy, leading figure in the next European electoral battle, will quickly know how to embody the right as other figures of the party, and demonstrate that The Republicans remain a political force placed “at the center of all battles”, from migration policy to agriculture.

Geoffroy Didier, MEP and conductor of these general meetings of the right devoted to work, pays tribute to “working France”. Pierre-Henri Dumont, deputy for Pas-de-Calais and co-host of the round table, invites the audience not to miss the European meeting with a message: “If we want to defend France which works , there is only one possible choice, it’s François-Xavier Bellamy!” Senator Jean-François Rapin, for his part, insists on purchasing power, the training of young people, the growing precariousness of students and the need for a return of sovereignty.

A fisherman, a liberal nurse, a financial director, a pharmacist and a farmer take their place on stage. Everyone is invited to describe the realities of their daily professional life. “People are so disgusted with what is happening in Europe that they have extremist tendencies. We are harassed from all sides,” complains the first speaker, tired of European policies that he perceives as obstacles. He recognizes himself in the current fight of farmers. We also hear a cry of warning about the deterioration of working conditions in the field of care, alarms about unprecedented shortages of medicines, the discouragement of young people in the face of the multiplication of obstacles, the impossibility of recruiting in the restoration, the inflation of absurd standards, the legal bludgeoning weighing on farmers...

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Finally, this LR meeting has the merit of offering the photograph of a profound crisis. It is the reflection of a France which doubts to which the Republicans want to promise a path of hope and "common sense", as Éric Ciotti insists, denouncing the "French absurdity" in which France "s 'sinks a little more every day'. Ironic about the economic results of the “Mozart of finance”, deploring the increase in insecurity or even the drift of migration policy and public services, the leader of the right in turn paints a black picture of the country. “We have to turn the tables. We can get out of the rut!”, he says to an attentive audience as François-Xavier Bellamy enters the room late to applause.

Will the right be heard? A first answer will be offered during the next elections in June but in the meantime, the Republicans are keeping their fingers crossed. And when Mayor LR du Touquet compares himself, he reassures himself. “The presidential Renaissance party would not be able to bring together 200 people like we are doing this evening. They have voters but no points of support. And despite everything that happened at Les Républicains, we kept this striking force.”