States General of the right: LR claims its “independence”, pledge of “responsibility”

In front of the Cirque d'Hiver (Paris), and in the midst of some 1,700 activists and sympathizers who came to attend the "states general" of the right, a man is reading, seated on a bench, the latest novel by François-Henri Désérable, L' Wear of a world. A passer-by cracks a smile. Wear and tear… “That's what you have to avoid. And this is precisely what Les Républicains, meeting on Saturday June 17 in the theater in the center of the capital, want to do.

"They think we're dead, but they still call us!" “Launches Rachida Dati, on stage. The applause rings out. The room has just been white-hot after the broadcast of a clip where the images of General de Gaulle, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy paraded, against a backdrop of epic music... A neat staging. "Modern", we even greet in the ranks of LR, while a former member of the communication team of Éric Zemmour photographs the event. "No comment ... I'm not a fan of recycling," blows a right-wing adviser.

Everything has a false air of a meeting, but without a champion. Which does not fail to annoy some. “The right is coming together to rebuild. In the meantime, where is our natural candidate? “, laughs a senator. Faced with strained microphones, cameras and notepads, the LRs however pretend not to see the problem. “Laurent Wauquiez is preparing, eludes Nadine Morano. He prepares himself on the field. That's his method, huh…” The first Deputy Secretary General of the Republicans, Othman Nasrou, adds: “The presidential election is the meeting of a man or a woman with the people. In the meantime, it's up to us to be audible. The party must be at the service of the candidate. So, and since nature abhors a vacuum, others take to the light. Arriving at the Cirque d'Hiver, assailed by a forest of poles, François-Xavier Bellamy smiles when he hears his name ring out, before joining the front row where the party boss, Éric Ciotti, his predecessor, Christian Jacob, sits in particular. as well as Xavier Bertrand, Aurélien Pradié, or Michel Barnier.

From the introduction of the states general, the president LR of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, is the first to evoke the political space in which he conceives the future of the Republicans. “I remain convinced that the right strategy must be independence and responsibility. Independence is the guarantee of our legitimacy. Responsibility is our compass, because only the interest of France guides our choices. " In front of his political family and the militants, the third personage of the State, whose name regularly circulates for Matignon, affirms it: "This 'at the same time' (Macronist) of left and right has been deadly for our democracy . Political life needs clarity, the French need benchmarks. Before directly targeting the responsibility of the President of the Republic in the installation of the current political landscape: "By trying to artificially disaggregate the foundations of our political system, Emmanuel Macron has fed the extremes, on the right and on the left. He has impoverished the debate to the point of caricature,” he denounces.

A way to raise your voice, taking care never to become too frontal. “Gérard Larcher is always offensive, at the beginning… And then it ends up calming down”, smiles an elected official. "A right-wing prime minister when we can't agree (with the executive) on the subject of immigration? », Replies Othman Nasrou. "Which majority would you like us to work with?" A majority that includes a Sacha Houlié? I don't believe in reaching out. It will not arrive. “In this context, Gérard Larcher ensures to guess a path for the right. “Yes, he insists, independent we remain a force, free of our movements and our criticisms, of our agreements as of our disagreements. We remain a credible alternative to this piecemeal majority, without method, without direction and without vision. This relative majority is not ours, our differences are very deep”.

When Éric Ciotti takes the floor in his turn, greeted by applause, he too defends the same ambition of independence. “Among you, I am a militant among militants. But an activist who, like you, is not resigned to seeing our political family play the supporting roles or the auxiliaries, ”claims the president of the Republicans. "Independent and free: always!" The figuration, very little for us. France needs a strong, courageous, conquering right. »

While waiting to achieve this, LR claims to want to do his introspection, "without taboos". "I never thought that we had to think in terms of electoral clientele", insists Bellamy who defends a right of "solutions" capable of "listening to those who have left us". A disappointed activist, former elected representative of Dordogne, and who has not had her card for 10 years, thus speaks. Among the critics, she evokes "the individualism" of "certain people" who, during parliamentary debates on pensions, participated in the "image of inconsistency" of the LRs who, in the candidacy of Valérie Pécresse, supported the leaving at age 65. “How do you want the grassroots activist to find his way? she squeaks.

In the front row, Aurélien Pradié has his face closed while, a few seats further, Bruno Retailleau applauds. The intervention does not convince everyone. "It's rude," says an elected official, referring to Claudine's former functions. And for good reason, during the last legislative elections, the latter was the deputy of the current director of the federations of the headquarters, and at the time LR candidate in the Dordogne. A right-wing observer acknowledges: "It's not Madame Michu..."

At the end of this hot day, during which Les Républicains will have finally agreed to submit to the realism of their guests, to the absence of Laurent Wauquiez, all the questions have not yet been answered. Perhaps they will be on July 3, on the lands of Laurent Wauquiez, “natural candidate” of Éric Ciotti. It will then be the first meeting embodied on the right.