Emmanuel Macron had offered to push them back after 2022, causing an uproar.
He was also suspected of wanting to "step over" them - which the boss of LREM, Stanislas Guerini, tirelessly refutes.
These regional elections will ultimately be "the first act of the presidential election", observes a framework of the majority.
The prologue, at the very least.
The incredible soap opera of the agreement between the outgoing LR Renaud Muselier and the presidential majority in Paca or the candidacy of the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti in Hauts-de-France testify to this.
If some Walkers have hopes in Brittany or in the Center, no one really believes, within the General Staff, in the chances of winning a regional executive.
"We read the polls and the polls do not give us winners", slice a leader of LREM, when another advances: "The objective, today, is not to gain regions but to be present everywhere.
And if we can be king or queen makers in certain regions, we will be very happy.
The stake for the majority, which counts no leaving, is elsewhere.
Read also 2022 Presidential, Covid-19: atypical regional elections
"A trial run", says a macronist, before the mother of battles in 2022. "This allows to lay the foundations of the common house
(Editor's note: partners of the MoDem majority, Agir, Territory of progress),
to push political angles, on the recovery plan, mobility, young people or Europe ", relentlessly lists the general delegate of LREM, Stanislas Guerini, also evoking" a great rehearsal of what will be the 2022 campaign in terms of militant structuring ”.
A warm-up, and therefore a test, one year from the presidential election.
In terms of mobilization capacity (activist and electoral), but also for "the union of the presidential majority", already put to the test during the preparation of the first round.
“Our partners are better served than us on the lists!
"Thus plague a Walker, while LREM, the original formation, is pinned down for its" weakness ".
"The thickness of a slice of ham in a sandwich," laments support from the Head of State.
The Paca negotiations have, for their part, ticked the left wing of the majority, which is already warning: beware that the overall picture does not lean completely to the right.
Set up a rampart against the RN, risky bet
At stake, the internal political balances and the coloring of "political recomposition" that Emmanuel Macron intends to pursue during this election. "The challenge is not to be divided on agreements in the second round, when the line is not very clear, and to free up political space for 2022", summarizes a historical macronist. What to set the tone of the campaign to come, therefore.
In the background, an unknown, which makes more than one shudder in the majority: the score of the National Rally, against which Emmanuel Macron has been set up as a bulwark.
"We will do everything so that he does not win any region," insists Guerini.
Whether this happens - especially in Paca and in Hauts-de-France, theaters of great maneuvers - would signify a failure of the anti-RN strategy of the majority, coupled with a heavy warning in the perspective of 2022.
Regional issues for other parties
LR: a springboard for the presidential election that has become a trap
RN: get a first regional council
EELV: confirm the good results of the municipal authorities
PS: keep the five bastions still on the left
LFI and PC: variable geometry alliances