Florence Portelli and Maël de Calan will face the main favorite, Laurent Wauquiez, in the race for the party presidency.
In the end, three candidates remain in the running for the presidency of the Les Républicains party as of Thursday, October 26, after their endorsements were examined by the High Authority.
The vote is scheduled for December 10 and 17.
Now that the electoral campaign can begin with the competitors known, Laurent Wauquiez has taken the lead, launching his campaign last Wednesday evening in Mandelieu (Alpes-Maritimes) and proclaiming himself the champion of “rooted France.”
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The meeting was attended by all the party’s big names elected in the department, except for Christian Estrosi, who criticizes the party’s very right-wing stance. He decided to abstain from participating and founded a movement of basic right and center elected officials (La France Audacieuse).
Laurent Wauquiez has reiterated the themes he holds dear, which are set to be his selling points: a truly right-wing stance designed to siphon votes from far-right supporters who are doubtful of Marine Le Pen.
An old tactic that worked for Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 but was rejected by the electorate in 2012 and 2017, forcing the former President of the Republic to withdraw from political life after a humiliating defeat in the party’s primaries (even though he was the outgoing president).
Furthermore, the President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region is supported by a circle of Sarkozy supporters who see him as the tool to return to internal power, while hoping for better prospects.
These are the same individuals who, after their idol’s defeat, lent their support to François Fillon for the presidential election and then to François Baroin for the legislative elections.
Sarkozy, Fillon, Baroin, three heads fallen in a little over a year.
One must assume that Laurent Wauquiez is not superstitious because, with such a crew on board, given the precedents… there is enough reason to knock on wood!
