After the result of last Sunday’s European election, which severely penalized Les Républicains and condemned the party’s political line, its President Laurent Wauquiez blamed the responsibility for this debacle on Emmanuel Macron.
It’s as if, following a defeat on the field in a football match, the losers blamed the opposing team’s goalkeeper for stopping their shots on goal.
This statement confirms the state of mental confusion of the leader of the so-called republican right (and his entourage), incapable of having a clear and coherent political line.
Several voices from his own camp had risen to call for his resignation and an overhaul of the party’s leadership. For now, Laurent Wauquiez has limited himself to buying time by indicating to a general assembly—after the holidays—a situation analysis and a thorough discussion.
While Senate President Larcher has stirred the waters by taking the initiative and announcing a forthcoming meeting with other institutional figures of the party, the party’s younger guard is more impatient.
Yesterday, eleven* Les Républicains (LR) deputies—including Pierre-Henri Dumont, who seems to be the spokesman, and which includes the Nice deputy Marine Brenier—announced the creation of a “renewal committee.”
The group of elected officials believes that “the right itself is the primary responsible for the European elections debacle.”
They call for a collective awareness: “We are incapable of explaining to the French why they should vote in our favor,” they argue, considering that “our common foundation, from which our entire project, ideas, and proposals for the French would emerge, must be that of work.”
Their ambition is to carry “the voice of the new generation of the French right” and intends to gather, in the new body they hope for, “parliamentarians, mayors, departmental and regional elected officials, candidates for past and future elections, and different local actors.”
Well, well… it closely resembles the speech of La France Audacieuse from a certain Christian Estrosi.
The young “conspirators” do not want to remain at the stage of intentions but want to take action: “We want this committee, while maintaining its independence, to find an official place within our political movement and be recognized by our statutes,” they declare. “It’s an ultimatum until the start of next week,” explained spokesman Pierre-Henri Dumont to Agence France-Presse, indicating that a press conference is to be organized on Tuesday.
It remains to be seen how the elected bodies of the party will react…
