Ninth meeting under high voltage this Wednesday at Les Républicains. The national investiture commission (CNI) was to definitively settle the thorny case of the 15th arrondissement of Paris where the outgoing mayor (LR) Philippe Goujon refuses to explicitly support Rachida Dati. But this was not the case and the two parties left without agreement.
For many weeks, the candidate LR in Paris has been carrying out a showdown to renew the right-wing leaders in certain districts and to impose, here and there, relatives on the lists. Latest example: the bloodshed of Rachida Dati after the mayor (LR) coming out of the XVIIth district Geoffroy Boulard was invested by the party - while the latter refuses that the candidate can choose her running mate.
Among the wishes of the mayor of the 7th arrondissement: include on the list two of his relatives, Jack-Yves Bohbot, elected from the 19th arrondissement, and Nelly Garnier, his campaign director, as well as separate from the outgoing senator Catherine Dumas.
"The senatorials in Paris is the election of twists"
Behind the scenes of the Parisian right, a hypothesis has been circulating insistently since the end of December. If she gives her all in the battle of Paris, Rachida Dati would actually aim for a position ... in the Senate. The renewal of Parisian senators will take place only in 2023 but it is on the occasion of the municipal ones that the electoral body is created: it is the great voters, in this case the councilors of Paris, who elect the Parisian senators . But many are hostile to Rachida Dati.
This would explain her insistence on having elected advisers who are close to her ... and on whom she could count on to have herself elected to the Senate. “The senatorials in Paris is the election of crooked shots. At least fifteen advisers from Paris are needed to secure a seat, ”deciphers an important elected representative on the right. So not so simple. Rachida Dati has also communicated this ambition to one of her important friends, according to several sources.
"It's his hidden goal"
Paris counselor François-David Cravenne, an expert on the mysteries of the Parisian right, observes: “It is said that Rachida Dati wants the Senate. It is very consistent with what it undertakes, that is to say to submit outgoing mayors and place as close as possible. "The Senate is its hidden objective," says a borough mayor (LR), on condition of anonymity. This is why, for example, she sent the leader of the right Atanase Périfan to the XXth arrondissement for the benefit of an unknown person. "
According to these elected officials who believe in this thesis, the candidate's insistence on dismissing Senator Catherine Dumas from the 17th arrondissement is explained precisely by Dati's desire to weaken her re-election to the upper house. “Dati realizes that she is not going to win Paris. So, she pecks almost everywhere elected officials who are close to her. For her, the Senate is a last resort, ”adds a weighty Parisian executive.
"I heard that, but it surprises me a little," reacts for his part the boss of LR senators, Bruno Retailleau. "It is completely false, it is smoke," firmly denies the entourage of Rachida Dati to the Parisian. "These are rumors that come from people who have only one interest: to weaken the candidate of the right in Paris," wants to believe Senator LR of Paris Céline Boulay-Espéronnier. One of his colleagues nuances: “It is possible that Rachida Dati thinks about it, all the politicians are thinking about the next move. But I really feel her in the countryside there, she has this aggressiveness of wanting to win… ”
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Dubative, a Parisian elected official close to the mayor of the 7th arrondissement, kicks in touch: "It is possible that she is targeting the Senate but I have not spoken with her about it. It is not because you elect people to municipal that they remain loyal to senators. "
