The right is back! Anyway… on TV. This Monday, November 8 was held the first of four debates that will see the five contenders for the nomination of the Republicans (LR) for the presidential election. On December 4, at the end of the congress and the vote of the party's members, only one will remain. The moment was awaited: Michel Barnier, Xavier Bertrand, Éric Ciotti, Philippe Juvin and Valérie Pécresse would they succeed in standing out, all without leaving (too much) traces of blood on the walls? Some feared a soporific exchange between care bears. Nothing happened during these exchanges which lasted more than 3 hours.
On the set of LCI / RTL / Le Figaro, everyone started by playing their own score: to Éric Ciotti, comfortable with immigration, the affiliation to François Fillon's “right Trocadero”;
to Michel Barnier, the role of “team leader” in concord, he will want to take “everyone's good ideas” for the presidential election.
See also Presidential: Bertrand, Pécresse, Barnier ... one month before the Congress of Republicans, the candidates respond to the Parisian
"I take all the reforms that the right has dreamed of doing for ten years and I will do them," asserted Valérie Pécresse, providing many figures to prove that she is already ready.
Philippe Juvin, for his part, drew on the role of Europe and the importance of decentralization, when Xavier Bertrand chose to defend nuclear energy, to regularly give collective “us”, and to attack Emmanuel very quickly. Macron: "His policy is a failure."
"My friends Xavier and Valérie pretend not to understand what I mean…"
On the economy and purchasing power, the candidates began to jostle each other, not hesitating to challenge each other, impose their word to exist in the debate, like Xavier Bertrand,… and more so enmities. “Michel did not say how he would finance his measures! ": First big arrow from Valérie Pécresse to Michel Barnier, reputed potential favorite of the ballot… and targeted several times during this debate. Both by the president of Île-de-France and by her counterpart from Hauts-de-France, who will have spared themselves.
"My friends Xavier and Valérie pretend not to understand what I mean ..." retorts the Savoyard, ironic, on the subjects of immigration.
The former European Brexit negotiator tried to put forward his "seriousness", his project, but was also more withdrawn during the start of the debate, and more on the defensive.
Read also Presidential: the main moments of the first LR debate
Then ?
No blood on the wall at midnight when the debate ended… but a few blues, perhaps, with candidates determined not to be fooled, knowing that the debates will be crucial.
Second round Sunday, on BFMTV.
