The deadline for memberships to vote in the right-wing primary has passed.
Nearly 150,000 members The Republicans will be able to choose their candidate for the 2022 presidential election, the party having almost doubled the number of memberships since the end of September, according to figures released Wednesday.
Tuesday at midnight, LR had 148,862 members up to date to be able to participate in the vote which will take place from December 1 to 4.
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By way of comparison, they were 79,183 on September 25, at the previous congress which had decided on the method of nominating the candidate.
This figure remains far from the more than 4 million people who voted in the first round of the 2016 primary. But constitutes a clear recovery for the party which, in disarray after several electoral defeats, had fallen to 60,000 members in 2019, after having totaled 237,000 to date of contribution five years ago.
A good point for the finances of the party
At 30 euros for individual membership, this also represents a significant sum for a party engaged in recent years in a major debt reduction effort. In recent weeks the five candidates - Michel Barnier, Xavier Bertrand, Éric Ciotti, Philippe Juvin and Valérie Pécresse - have strongly encouraged their supporters to join in order to influence the vote.
The whole question is to know who will benefit from this increase in the number of voters, some of whom may be less sensitive to the loyalty argument put forward by Michel Barnier.
Xavier Bertrand and Valérie Pécresse, who have just resumed their card after leaving the party in 2017 and 2018, aroused a certain reserve among some of the historical members of the Republicans, but have also largely contributed to replenishing the ranks of the party in recent weeks.