Retailleau, Bellamy, Aubert: "Under Sarkozy, nothing was really assumed until the end"

If the right is about to disappear from the political spectrum, it is because it has long since lost the confidence of the French. We do not resign ourselves to fate; but a change of name or slogans will not be enough to stem our decline. To the voters on the right, who will have to designate the next president of the Republicans, we say this: it is time to finally carry out, by giving you the floor, a work of truth on our heritage, and clarity on our line.

This requires first of all to finally consider the past lucidly. Let us clearly recognize the obvious: the crisis our country is going through did not start in 2017, nor in 2012. Not even in 2007... Admittedly, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy have each contributed to France. In the crises, they knew how to maintain their rank: President Chirac by refusing the war in Iraq, President Sarkozy by acting in the face of the financial crisis of 2008. The humanity of the first and the energy of the second have undoubtedly marked the French . And yet, how not to recognize it: if the right had been, in power, really up to its promises, and its responsibility, France would be better today. And the right too...

Doing a serious and peaceful inventory work is neither sinking into sterile repentance nor disrespecting those who have gone before us; it is to keep all the necessary lessons, to regain the confidence of the French.

During Jacques Chirac's twelve years at the Elysée, the right lacked the courage it needed to face risks that have since become, through accumulated cowardice, existential dangers - the migratory challenge, educational decline, cultural deconstruction ... Too many denials, too many abandonments have taken her away from the working classes, as Philippe Seguin already feared. The Maastricht fracture was not closed, or even considered, to the point that the Gaullist family gave the impression of abandoning the cause of national sovereignty. To respond to the rise in concerns, it could not be enough to theorize the Republican front: the real response to distrust does not consist in building dams, but in questioning oneself.

The hope that arose after Nicolas Sarkozy's exhilarating campaign in 2007 was also disappointed. Much has been done during these five years, but nothing has really been assumed until the end: the right has taxed overtime, but it has not put an end to the 35 hours. It introduced minimum sentences, but abolished the double penalty. It reduced the number of civil servants, while increasing bureaucracy, for example by creating the ARS which embolized the healthcare system. The right had promised the break, it took half measures. To the renunciation was added the denial when with the Treaty of Lisbon, the sovereign "no" of 2005 was circumvented. The democratic crisis which, we are convinced, crystallized at that time will not be resolved by "citizen conventions" or "refoundation councils", but by giving the floor back to the people by referendum, on the immigration in particular, and by rediscovering the absolute respect which is due to this word.

These weaknesses, the UMP became LR masked them by repetitive communication, by elements of language exhausted from having been repeated for fifteen years. We refuse this mediocre marketing which consists of aligning supposed "markers". It is no longer enough to pay for words. Let's invent real solutions, rather than repeating old slogans. Since we are constantly talking about the value of work, let's get back to working on our ideas, our vision of the world, our ambitions for the France of tomorrow, but also our way of offering them to the French, our methods and our modes of action, our place in a public debate that has changed so much, the training of the young people who will join us, and above all democracy in our political training.

As a starting point for this work, we propose a line based on three pillars. Human dignity first. To live with dignity is to live from one's work, and not from the assistantship. It means living from merit and effort, which must once again become the cardinal values ​​of our school. It means living in security, with the certainty that order will be assured, that sentences will be carried out, that no impunity can be tolerated. To live with dignity is finally to live freely, without the infantilizing tutelage of a State which regulates everything and superimposes European standards; without the growing interference of ideology in the lives and consciences of our children. Let the State take care of the affairs of France, the French will take care of theirs very well!

Second pillar: the sovereignty of the Nation. Reindustrialise, redo a large nuclear sector, protect our agriculture against free trade agreements, reaffirm our legal sovereignty in the face of European judges: this is all that the fight for sovereignty requires. This will not be complete without control of our public finances, because a nation that does not keep its accounts does not keep its rank. Finally, the values ​​of our Judeo-Christian civilization must once again become the soul of our political combat, in order to defeat Islamism or Wokism, and oppose them with the demanding generosity of assimilation and transmission. Only a policy of civilization can remake France; only the recognition of its roots can restore meaning to Europe: its heritage has made its greatness, its amnesia would make it unhappy. It is on the singularities and the national democracies that Europeans will be able to find the authentic unity that we need to assert, in an unstable world, our principles and our interests.

Finally taking stock, finally speaking clearly: this is our line, the refoundation that we are proposing. No, nothing is lost for the right. But everything has to be rebuilt. It's up to us to prove to the French that tomorrow we can be worthy of their trust.

Bruno Retailleau, François Xavier Bellamy and Julien Aubert.