A funny start to the school year.
Made of floating and dust that we try to put under the carpet while trying to keep the smile.
The Republicans met this weekend in Port-Marly (Yvelines), boosted by the presence of a thousand young activists from all over France, and at the same time stunned by a week when the right-wing party will have been damn shaken.
François Baroin, the mayor (LR) of Troyes, arrived this Saturday noon, more watched than ever by a cloud of media eager to know: yes or no would he confirm, as Le Figaro claimed the day before, that he had well made his decision?
The presidential election would be without him.
On entering the complex of the Pyramids where the raout is held, it is the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa that we perceive on the face of the Chiraquian.
Suffice to say that we do not perceive anything.
"The will to be a factor of union, not of division"
No media will have the time to ask him the question.
It is therefore an activist, who during the last round table of which Baroin is the guest of honor, takes the plunge: “Mr. Baroin, will you be a presidential candidate?
"The following ovation is up to the expectations, but the answer will remain equivocal:" I will not answer you.
If we are among ourselves in this room, we cannot ignore what is happening in the country.
And I have not met a person outside, apart from my family, who asks the question morning noon or evening, who is interested in this question.
"
And to conclude: "I will do it, in due time, in responsibility with the passion of the country, with the will to be a factor of union and not of division.
There is therefore no question of specifying his intention, no question either of spoiling the political comeback of his friend Christian Jacob, the party boss.
The tone sounds twilight, though, if the answer is expected in the fall.
For many at LR, it's already seen everything.
"People only talk about that ..." whispered a party official on Saturday morning, with a crestfallen face, aware that the return to the party is totally affected by the probable defection of Baroin.
“It's been 15 days since everyone said he was not going.
He would have hinted at Jacob this summer… ”, murmurs an elected leader.
"It is the conclusion of an addition of coherent signs", abounds a senior executive of LR, way of saying: it was written.
Between two tables, in Port-Marly, some still want to believe that nothing is played.
"As long as he has not spoken, the two options (to present himself or to give up) exist", we whisper in the entourage of the head of the Senate Gérard Larcher.
Besides, Baroin would not have made his decision known to Larcher.
A sign ?
What if avoiding the refusal of an obstacle was a Machiavellian strategy?
Doubt is a slow poison that confuses people's minds.
Learning from the 2016 primary
The young activists who will have surveyed the Port-Marly complex for two days do not always know what to think.
"Yes we are disappointed ... but at the same time there is nothing official", comments a tall dark-haired man, mask and midnight blue suit jacket.
“In the field, people don't ask us that,” resumes another.
“We are two years away from the presidential election, it's far!
And the important thing is the work we do on the ideas, ”reminds a third.
“I would have preferred it to be him… he would have avoided us having a primary… But it's much too early,” slips an elected Parisian.
This is the question that will animate Les Républicains in the coming weeks: how to choose your future candidate for 2022?
The boss of LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, aspiring candidate, recalled his wish to see an open primary organized, with "new rules, drawing lessons from [that of] 2016".
Tuesday morning, a strategic council is to be held at LR's headquarters to discuss the possible modalities of a future primary (or according to the new expression "tiebreaker").
Probably without François Baroin.
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Philosophizing on the concepts of “success” and “Republic”, the mayor of Troyes concluded his remarks by affirming that “success […] is to succeed in life, to define one's own happiness”.
A good hearer.