LE FIGARO .- Are you in favor of the organization of a primary to designate the right-wing candidate for the presidential election?
Michel BARNIER .-
The organization of a primary is written into the statutes of our political family. One way or another, our activists, including the centrist activists we work with, will have to make this designation their own. Beyond the circumstances and a context that were extremely different, the last primary left us with mixed memories, because it fueled controversy and one-upmanship instead of creating a rally. The situation of the country and the state of our party do not allow it today. This is why I approved the process proposed by the President of the Republicans Christian Jacob: it is necessary to accelerate this process and to inform it by a series of polls in order to provide benchmarks and to frame the debate.The time in front of us must allow us to promote internal dialogue, teamwork and unification. We must speak to each other while fully understanding our individual and collective responsibility to meet the expectations of the French. Our duty is to propose, in the fall, an alternative to the announced duel Macron-Le Pen which the French do not want.
You have met nearly 120 parliamentarians since your return from Brussels. In what state do you judge your movement?
The media spend a lot of time describing a ragged, dying, outdated Right. This observation does not correspond to reality and it is paradoxical. Paradoxical because our family, our project, our values are at the center of what the French want. This is what I feel and hear on the pitch. Paradoxical also because we have elected representatives in large numbers, in villages, towns, departments and regions. We have the first parliamentary group in the Senate and the European Parliament and the second in the Assembly… This represents a considerable force, the first opposition force. We also have experienced and talented politicians who have proven their worth in government practice and at the head of large communities. If you put these talents together,you can build an exceptional French team, the one France needs. Will we be able to embody this collective force in the coming weeks, in a lucid and responsible manner? I wish it and I want to contribute strongly to it.
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Xavier Bertrand seems to want to go there without going through a party. Does this prospect threaten the cohesion of the right?
I don't want to personalize the reflection, but I don't believe the times need a providential man or woman.
Nobody can today win the presidential election on the right without the support of LR, the first movement in terms of local elected officials and activists and which is able to finance a presidential campaign.
In addition, to reconcile the French among themselves, the next president will have to embody a collective force.
I therefore recommend focusing on collective work over personal ambitions.
Jean Leonetti, mayor of Antibes, has just been appointed to prepare things. What are you going to tell him?
I absolutely trust him.
It is a good choice, because it is respected by everyone.
I will explain my approach to him without seeking to impose a candidacy but rather to check if I can be useful for the unity of my political family, before being useful for the unity of the French.
I have passed the age of feverishness.
If the results of the regional ones turn out to be below LR hopes, don't you fear an implosion and fractures between the different sensitivities?
Once again, I find that the media devotes a lot of time and energy to diagnosing our one political family. We will keep our rank, regional as well as departmental, which too often the Parisian press forgets. Our outgoing elected officials have done a very good job. They have shown that we can transform territories, control public spending, be efficient and serve the general interest. This is the case of Renaud Muselier, as of Xavier Bertrand, Valérie Pécresse, Jean Rottner, Laurent Wauquiez, Christelle Morancais, Hervé Morin and no less than 67 presidents of outgoing departments of the right and the center. We are not the ones who have an existential problem! What strikes me is that very little is said about the Walkers when there is noThere is no precedent having shown a presidential party so non-existent. A party which is reduced to carrying out destabilization or blasting operations, as it did in Paca.
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Make no mistake: within our family, what brings us together is stronger than you think. Those who wanted to leave have already left. For 2022, I believe in our ability to bring to us French people who had turned away from the right and the center in recent years. As long as you are not mistaken about the person who will embody our project. On the condition of showing the French that we listen to them and that we understand them. Priority to activity and work, respect and republican authority, control of immigration and adherence to the national narrative, reform of essential public services, from school to health in through justice: out of all these priorities for the country, it is the right that can best meet the expectations of the French.
Obviously, the lack of anchoring of LREM does not prevent Emmanuel Macron from succeeding in destabilizing the right ...
We'll see if it works.
I hope that Renaud Muselier regains the confidence of citizens because he is at the head of an efficient and well-managed community.
Voters must say “
enough is enough
” to these maneuvers.
The country is in a very serious state of tension.
The citizens are back to back.
There are a lot of fractures and nervousness everywhere.
It is urgent to restore calm, height and collective in the way of speaking to each other.
After the maneuvers observed in the regional, the current power will have responsibilities to assume for the second round.
Except to deliberately want the success of the RN to find himself alone against Marine Le Pen for the presidential election.
How can Republicans protect themselves from Macronie's attacks if they continue until your leader emerges?
The only possible answer is unity. Methodically and seriously, within the Republicans, a very good team prepared a project for France. The thematic conventions, undertaken by Christian Jacob, are the fruit of collective and serious work. With all that we each bring, we have the backbone of a project capable of meeting the expectations of the French. This is the lesson I draw from the work that we carry out within “Patriotes et Européens”, which brings together sovereignists and liberals alike around debates on the issues of independence for France as well as for Europe. In the same logic, I asked Daniel Fasquelle, associate of law and elected of Pas-de-Calais, mayor of Touquet,kindly lead the work on a moratorium on immigration, which I proposed last month to review procedures and regulate migratory flows, at national and European levels. I also asked François Cornut-Gentille, deputy for Haute-Marne, to feed the work of Jean Leonetti concerning the method of designation of our candidate. In addition, from July, I will propose, within LR, a political organization, to welcome those who want to join us around the ambition of making France the leading economic, ecological and European power in Europe in ten years. years.I also asked François Cornut-Gentille, deputy of Haute-Marne, to feed the work of Jean Leonetti concerning the method of designation of our candidate. In addition, from July, I will propose, within LR, a political organization, to welcome those who want to join us around the ambition of making France the leading economic, ecological and European power in Europe in ten years. years.I also asked François Cornut-Gentille, deputy of Haute-Marne, to feed the work of Jean Leonetti concerning the method of designation of our candidate. In addition, from July, I will propose, within LR, a political organization, to welcome those who want to join us around the ambition of making France the leading economic, ecological and European power in Europe in ten years. years.ecological and European in Europe in ten years.ecological and European in Europe in ten years.
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The French presidency of the EU, scheduled for January and for a semester, is perceived by some Marchers as a springboard for the presidential election. Doesn't it risk being another source of vulnerability for the right?
I have the weakness to believe that the one or those who govern must bring together and present positive projects rather than seeking to divide, to separate others. The French basically want something else. Our responsibility for us, the Republicans and the centrists, is to propose a project which leads to and generates support. This is what we will do with the “Patriots and Europeans” working group, taking inspiration from what Nicolas Sarkozy was able to do in 2007 and 2009 through the synthesis between those who have a more national commitment and those who are more European. This synthesis is necessary. When we succeed, we win. I am not a federalist and I have no lesson to learn on the European commitment. I believe in the European project as a force thatadds to our national sovereignty. Which prolongs and reinforces it, on condition of developing a real strategy of influence and conviction in Europe, without arrogance or naivety.
How do you analyze the violence expressed today against elected officials and the Head of State?
This democratic weakness is first of all a reflection of other French weaknesses that we must urgently correct, in economic activity, State authority, immigration, abandoned territories or essential public services. This violence vis-à-vis the Head of State is absolutely unjustifiable, as it is with regard to the police, teachers, local elected officials ... Those who commit themselves for others and participate in the construction of our society must be observed. This is a fundamental question for our democracy which will only be resolved through the restoration of public authority. A five-year programming law will be needed to increase both the resources of the police and the judiciary, to build a new criminal response,support the major role of teachers in the face of rising violence and intolerance… These are all the reasons for the weakening of public speech in France.
Does the President of the Republic not show a firm desire to go into contact with all French people?
Reciprocal trust requires more than contact. In our country there is the feeling of a lonely exercise of power, of a sometimes unpredictable decision that falls from above. The Covid crisis should have been the opportunity, given the gravity of the situation, to bring everyone together, to call on all energies, coming from the private sector, associations, and regions. However, the state has failed to trust. It is a missed opportunity. We must restore the collective, respect and consideration between the different actors who worked side by side. I do not believe that we can rectify this country without relying on a contract of trust with the local authorities and, no doubt, a new major law of local freedom.We need to have more respect for the parliament, which has an indispensable role of proposal and control to play. France must also find a more sincere and regular social dialogue. To change this country and get it started again, we have to put it back on the right track, in the right direction. And that goes far beyond the will to act alone. We must rebuild "
with
”.
Basically, it will take a project and a method of reconciliation.
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Brittany, Grand Est, Occitanie, Center, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Thursday… We have often seen you supporting candidates during these regional events. Will the right keep its seven regions?
A politician does not have the right to be fatalistic.
The far right advances when we are weak and divided.
Yes, we can keep our seven regions and even win others as our municipal victories were possible.
In Brittany, with Isabelle Le Callennec, in the Center, with Nicolas Forissier, in Occitanie, with Aurélien Pradié, we have chosen candidates capable of creating work-study programs.
Regarding the presidential election, you said that you would specify your intentions in the fall. Polls estimate your potential between 6% and 8%. What do you think ?
I observe that the polls are progressing even though I am not a candidate. Beyond what these polls say today and what they will say tomorrow, I want to see if I can be useful in working for the unity of my political family. Because no one has imposed himself! What counts is therefore the team, the collective, the unit. I would add that the team leader that we will have to appoint will have to govern this country differently, by finding the basis of the sharing of the tasks of the Fifth Republic: a president sets the main orientations, guarantees the unity of the country that he represents abroad and a government governs. We would do well, as in other great democracies, to clarify these roles before the election because frankly, no one can believe thata woman or a man alone will be able to meet the immense challenges of the country.
According to what parameters should the presidential project of the right be developed?
We must appeal to the intelligence of the French. We are the only continent that will lose 50 million inhabitants in the next few years and Africa will have 2.5 billion inhabitants in 2050. Climate change is also one of the most serious challenges. This will change everything, we must prepare for it. These are not the whims of environmentalists or scientists. We must not leave this subject to the radical Greens. It is up to us to propose effective ecological responses, which are based on innovation, on the creativity of our researchers, our entrepreneurs and our farmers. We must also find, within or outside the Union, the means of combining our national solidarity between Europeans, on immigration, energy, industry, space,artificial intelligence. This is what I call the solidary national sovereignties which will allow us to exist vis-à-vis the United States or China.
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I cannot resign myself to my country being a subcontractor or under the influence. But for this, France must resolutely bet on activity. I defended the idea of abolishing production taxes and reducing the cost of skilled labor in five years because there is a very rapid return on investment, which would put our companies on an equal footing with Germany but also to boost wages and purchasing power. We must restore real ambition to our country. This ambition is within our reach provided we correct our weaknesses and encourage what works. By organizing the Olympic Games in France with Jean-Claude Killy in 1992, I learned this lesson: we improve by playing together and by sharing a common project.Some Olympics players still tell me today that they had the impression of making progress by participating in this great collective adventure. This is what is needed for our country. I know it is possible.
When some people tell you that they want you to carry out such a project, what do you say to them?
That I will be there.
