LR: Gérard Larcher, the essential

Gérard Larcher has a principle that he repeats over and over: "Never say no out of dogmatism, never say yes out of principle."

In short, to be essential in all discussions.

And this Thursday, while he is preparing to be reelected hands down for the fourth time to the presidency of the Senate, the septuagenarian does not intend to change line.

Since the arrival of Emmanuel Macron and his new world, the former mayor of Rambouillet (Yvelines) has made a point of defending the “territories”, which he loves to roam, and to fight against the Jacobin state and centralizer.

Among his pride, having torpedoed the constitutional revision project of Emmanuel Macron, which envisaged in particular the reduction of the number of parliamentarians.

"To preserve the territorial anchoring of parliamentarians, we demanded the principle of the election of at least one deputy and one senator per department, per local authority with special status or per overseas collectivity," recalls Gérard Larcher. in the report card that he sent to each senator.

In this document, he brandishes an avalanche of figures supposed to demonstrate that the former veterinarian has treated bicameralism like no one else: since 2017, 76% of the texts have, for example, been adopted without having recourse to the last word of the National Assembly, against 72% before.

"A fierce and formidable opponent"

When, in March 2019, Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to create a “European agency of democracies”, the third state figure strangled in private: “This agency for the protection of democracy, it exists, it's called Parliament !

While with the inversion of the electoral calendar, the National Assembly becomes in his eyes a simple register of the Elyos desires, Gérard Larcher intends to give back to the Senate all its place of counter-power.

Practical work when the Benalla affair broke and the parliamentary commission of inquiry gave the macronists a hard time.

"The hearings brought together up to 700,000 viewers", rejoices Gérard Larcher in his programmatic document, too happy with the new light projected on an institution often perceived as dusty.

“Larcher has always been a fierce and formidable opponent.

This was far too underestimated at the start of the quinquennium, thinking that we could work with him.

It was a mistake.

The President of the Republic has returned, ”observes an LREM executive.

READ ALSO>

Rémi Cardon, 26, new youngest in the Senate

Relegitimized at the very moment when his political family is lacking in incarnation, Gérard Larcher "is aware of his responsibilities" within the right, slips his entourage for whom "de facto, his re-election gives him legitimacy".

“We are 153 LR senators, they are only 104 LR deputies.

It will therefore be necessary to take into account the opinion of the senators in the strategy for the presidential election ”, rejoices an elected LR.

However, Gérard Larcher is one of the hottest supporters of the primary, whose detractors are numerous in the party, starting with its president Christian Jacob.

The entourage of the President of the Senate confirms that he intends to get involved in the working group supposed to phosphorate on the very

method of deciding a candidate.

But while Christian Jacob intends to postpone the start of its work until the spring, the powerful senator from Yvelines thinks that it is imperative to start by the end of 2020. “He is committed to doing keep everyone on the same boat, ”observes an LR executive.

Political Newsletter

Every day, political news seen by Le Parisien

I'm registering

Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.

Learn more

When the right was threatened with explosion after the failure of the 2019 European elections, it was already he who had gathered all the executives in a Parisian Novotel, before embarking on a tour de France of federations.

"He succeeded in bringing Christian Estrosi and Eric Ciotti around the table in the South and Xavier Bertrand in the North," recalls one of his relatives.

A year later, the obsession is the same: to hold the family to prevent it from exploding.

"We have to keep the space on the right," Gérard Larcher confided several months ago.

Otherwise, the only alternative will be Marine Le Pen.

Because we can be zero and win, we know some famous examples ... "