A good blow of ruler on the fingers and a pat on the back, in spite of everything.
This is how to summarize the balancing act of the Republicans party vis-à-vis Renaud Muselier.
After two weeks of psychodrama, the outgoing president (LR) of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, accused of making a pact with the presidential majority, tears lip support from his political family.
Which one hopes to cut short this poisoned regional soap opera.
Nothing certain.
"Renaud Muselier, candidate for Les Républicains, made a mistake and an error in political analysis", initially lectured his friend and LR boss Christian Jacob in a press release, before wishing his victory "thus preventing the switch to the National gathering ”of the Paca region. All while mocking the “mediocre maneuvers” of Emmanuel Macron. This is what gave birth, in pain, the LR strategic committee which was held this Tuesday, May 18 in the morning. "A responsible decision", soberly greeted Renaud Muselier in a press release.
"We had to get out of the ambiguity, clearly say that we obviously prefer the victory of Renaud Muselier to that of Mariani
(Editor's note: Thierry Mariani, the RN candidate, from the ex-UMP)
and the left", loose a member of the committee, even if there was "no good way out" here, confides another executive.
What "turn the page and stop leafing through" on the subject, hoped the leader of deputies LR Damien Abad.
"You have to be consistent, it's worse than tongue in cheek"
Not enough to allay internal tensions and fears, however. How to support the integration of marchers on the Muselier lists with the approval of the Elysée, and in parallel, the eviction of LR parliamentarians? “We cannot say both: both that he betrayed us and that we are supporting him, it is not possible. You have to be consistent, it's worse than joking, ”plague a frame. The deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes Éric Ciotti, as well as the leader of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau strongly opposed any support, in vain.
The exchanges were no less heated during the group meeting of LR deputies at the end of the morning. Two hours of debates, nearly twenty-five interventions on the subject. "Manly but correct", reports a deputy. Christian Jacob was not spared, accused of being too conciliatory with Renaud Muselier. “He had a very tight face,” says another. "You can't have your ass between two chairs!" "Defended the boss of LR, exhausted by these two weeks when he has never stopped trying to get his party out of the macronist rut. In vain ? "The voters are very annoyed, and do not understand the position of Muselier", worries Michèle Tabarot, deputy (LR) of the Alpes-Maritimes, the first LR federation in militants, who voted Monday against the support for the president of the region outgoing.
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This episode will in any case leave a bitter taste to the right, symbolically dispossessed of a region that, however, it directs, and supporting lists that house likely opponents to the legislative elections of 2022. LR, actor of his own erasure of the game Politics ?
"Paca is not France", wants to believe a leader, who looks further north, and relies on the other presidents of the right-wing regions, and presidential aspirants, to raise the gauntlet, both against the RN and the Republic Running (LREM).
