Laurent Wauquiez is not known for his sense of nuance. Speaking plainly is the best way, he believes, to appeal to the masses who are fed up with the lukewarm.
So, when he talks about the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whom a majority of European democrats want to ban from the EU, he does not hold back his support for him.
Orban, “democratically elected, has every right to be part of the European People’s Party,” the EPP that includes right-wing parties, such as LR, in the Strasbourg Parliament.
But what exactly is Wauquiez up to? Does he truly support Orban’s actions, which trample on European values in Hungary—judicial independence, openness, freedom of the press and education, human rights, and other minor details?
His real objective lies elsewhere and has two facets. Firstly, to once again assert his difference from the “soft right” embodied, in his view, by Pécresse, Juppé, Bertrand, Estrosi, and others…
Secondly, and most importantly, to not leave the field of staunch sovereignism, which involves “resisting” Brussels, to Marine Le Pen.
Nine months before the European elections, Wauquiez has made his choices.
