"If I receive a hidden call this weekend, I do not answer," warns an LR executive. Because if at the end of the phone, the President of the Republic or the new Prime Minister offers a position to the government, the temptation would be too great not to refuse it. On this weekend of reshuffle, the right is feverishly waiting to know who in the ranks will yield to the macronist sirens. Because with his CV as a former collaborator of Xavier Bertrand and Nicolas Sarkozy, whom he also called in the wake of his appointment, Jean Castex has everything to please LR. And his first interview Friday evening on TF1, in which the "social Gaullist" glorified the values of "secularism and authority" was honey in the ears of the right.
"These were exactly the words of the Republicans, they were right, but Macron has been doing the opposite for three years", blows a tenor of the party. On Twitter, the mayor (LR) of Chalon-sur-Saône, Gilles Platret, warned his comrades: “LR friends, these next hours, they will try. You are going to have all the qualities. We will tell you: It's for France! Well, just think of the country. And say: No! "
"If there are those who leave, the others will cry out in betrayal but will all be jealous," laughs an LR adviser. In fact, "the phones heat up! Recognizes an officer. Without really knowing what credit to give them, the names of the ministers circulate: the deputies Guillaume Larrivé, who clearly indicated that he was available, Eric Woerth but also local elected officials like Renaud Muselier, Christian Estrosi or the least known mayor of Angers, Christophe Béchu who has already returned his LR card.
"The poaching of people of few convictions is the only spring of Macron"
This is also what Jean Castex did, whose letter of resignation from LR, "without explanation" is said to be rue de Vaugirard, reached the party on Friday. “30 euros for membership, it was not expensive! "Retorts the president of the party Christian Jacob to indicate that Jean Castex was not an active militant. Since Friday, the boss of the right likes to portray the new Prime Minister as a simple "high official" and not a political catch. "He was appointed assistant secretary general under Sarkozy, he could very well have been under Holland! ", Assures the president of LR for which Jean Castex" will remain much more an assistant secretary general of the Elysée than a Prime Minister ". "The poaching of people of few convictions is the only spring of Macron," he gets angry.
"If we are taken the best, it is because we are the best!" ", Instead dramatizes the former collaborator of Nicolas Sarkozy, Franck Louvrier, for whom" it is not a problem that Macron chooses someone from LR ":" It is just that he needs a Prime Minister who come from the right because he understood that France is mainly from the right… ”Doesn't the“ beam ”still risk“ working ”to the detriment of LR, as Edouard Philippe said? "As long as the frame is on the right ...", he replies. “Let's be consistent. I prefer to see a former LR at the top of the State than a former socialist! Now everything remains to be done, ”agrees MEP Geoffroy Didier, who specifies that he does not intend to enter government.
"Macron has established a list of targets to take from us but few will go," said an LR executive. “As much as Edouard Philippe was really the right arm of Alain Juppé, with a network of parliamentarians, as much Castex is not a man of networks. It seems appetizing but beware: the two years which will come will be two years of Macron hyper-presidency. And Macron is the Titanic! Warns the same. "A little modesty, nuances another. Our boat is not very powerful either… ”
