Jean Castex at the head of the government, headache in sight for the Republicans. The first steps of the new Prime Minister of Emmanuel Macron, ex-Sarkozyste, will have shown that he is determined to lean on his right leg, encroaching more and more on the themes dear to his former party, LR. Thus, the former Deputy Secretary General at the Elysee Palace under Nicolas Sarkozy presented himself as the man of the “territories” - LR claims to be the party - from the start put forward his label of “social Gaullist” .
Last week, he chose to stage the security side of his policy by moving to Nice (right-wing stronghold) by promising to expand the powers of the municipal police and greater severity against drug trafficking. So many markers which were angles of attack from the right towards Emmanuel Macron, accused of being disconnected from the country and weak in the sovereign domain. What to strip LR, already very weakened by the current president, of all its cartridges?
"On the votes, we'll be pissed off all the time"
“The priorities of Jean Castex are a hollow denunciation of what the president failed to do. It's an admission of failure ”, retorts Annie Genevard, member of the Doubs and No. 4 of LR. "There is no discomfort vis-à-vis the government: the economic indicators are catastrophic and, on the regal, Jean Castex threads pearls", argues for his part Christian Jacob, president of the party. Same music with Aurélien Pradié, general secretary LR and elected representative of the Lot: “They do the communication and that is no longer enough to create an illusion. Castex will not erase the question of Emmanuel Macron's personality: the French have a problem with his insincerity. You almost think Republicans have a boulevard.
But in practice, and in the National Assembly in particular, difficult to embody the opposition when the laws presented so often go in the direction of the Republicans. It might not get better with Castex at the helm. “We have never made systematic, stupid and nasty opposition, like the Insoumis or the RN,” recalls the Pas-de-Calais MP Pierre-Henri Dumont, who prefers to send the government back to its supposed ineffectiveness: “ It is a government of the word. "" On the votes, we will be pissed off all the time. There are subjects on which it will be difficult to oppose. So we have to come up with other ideas… ”nevertheless blows a tenor of the party. "I am not worried, provided I embody an alternative, to explore other fields than security", argues Pradié, stressing that it is feminist questions that shake the current government more than any other.
Party seeks presidential candidate
The right-wing party has been engaged for several months in the reconstruction of a fundamental project, leaving its comfort zones to try to deliver a draft political program for the next presidential election, in order to challenge the current one. President.
"The problem of LR is not found with Emmanuel Macron, but in the embodiment of our project, argues the MEP Brice Hortefeux. We have a swimming lane, but we don't know who will wear the swimsuit. “All eyes are on François Baroin. The mayor of Troyes must clarify his presidential intentions (or not) by the fall. Having a figurehead is the real puzzle of the LR ship.
