The long electoral campaign has its winner, and it is not the one you might have thought. Hervรฉ Morin, the former Minister and president of the Nouveau Centre, did not manage to convince the members that he was the right choice to succeed the charismatic Jean-Louis Boorlo. It is Jean-Christophe Lagarde who won with a little more than 53.5% of the votes.
This election was particularly important for the positioning of the centrist family in the lead-up to the (open?) right-wing primary in 2016 and the presidential election in 2017.
Will the UDI present a candidate in the first consultation? Will it be a loyal ally to the UMP candidate in 2017, when every vote will be precious in the first round? And if so, why and how? In fact, to win, Jean-Christophe Lagarde focused on a discourse centered on the independence of the center from the UMP, and above all, on a presidential candidacy in 2017.
On the local level, the head of the UDI, Rudy Salles, campaigned for Hervรฉ Morin while the Radical Party, once its candidate Yves Jego was defeated in the first round, quickly declared for Jean-Christophe Lagarde.
Will the local balances change? In any case, the Radical Party will inaugurate its office next Wednesday: A first and a curious coincidence.
In this spirit, party officials Hervรฉ CAEL Coordinator Nice, Battina ELOPHE Coordinator Nice, Lilia PARISOT Deputy Department President, expressed themselves after learning the results: “In this second round campaign for the election of the UDI president, we have provided, with the national bureau of the Radical Party chaired by Laurent HENART, all our support to Jean-Christophe LAGARDE. Succeeding Jean-Louis BORLOO at the head of the party represents a real challenge and a strong expectation for the members, activists, and supporters of the UDI. More generally, all our fellow citizens aspire to a true renewal of French political life.”
Rudy Salles, for his part, chose the path of compromise: “I call for the gathering of the UDI in order to define a project and organization allowing us to consolidate and amplify the place of our political movement envisioned by Jean Louis Borloo.
I wish that the supporters of Jean-Christophe Lagarde and Hervรฉ Morin, but also the candidates from the first round, come together to work together solely in the general interest of our country.”
It remains to be seen how the new President intends to act and how he will envision his relationship with Franรงois Bayrou, the other strong man of the centrist arena, and his political expression, the MoDem, whose local relations with Rudy Salles are not the best.
