David Desgouilles is a columnist for Marianne. He has published
DERAPAGE
(ed. Du Rocher, 2017) and
their lost wars
, (ed. Du Rocher, 2019).
FIGAROVOX. - The former number 2 of the Republicans, Guillaume Peltier, joined Eric Zemmour. Is this an important rallying point for the Reconquest candidate! ?
David DESGOUILLES. -
Insofar as Eric Zemmour announced for a long time that there would be rallies, the arrival of a former number 2 of LR finally brings a little water to his mill.
After experiencing an unprecedented surge in September and October, the candidate for Reconquest!
slowed down in November and then stabilized thanks to the announcement of his candidacy and his big meeting in Villepinte.
The arrival of Guillaume Peltier, after a week dominated by noisy statements from Emmanuel Macron, has the advantage for Eric Zemmour of making the news, bringing him a little media light.
Bad tongues could say that Guillaume Peltier is to Eric Zemmour what Aurore Bergé is to Emmanuel Macron.
David Desgouilles
Should we put this “war prize” into perspective, as Guillaume Peltier has let go of his icons in the past?
It would indeed be necessary to measure the notoriety rate of Guillaume Peltier in the total population.
And among those who know him, there is undoubtedly this impression of a journey to the right with many stages, from the FNJ to Bruno Mégret, then from Bruno Mégret to Philippe de Villiers, from Philippe de Villiers to Nicolas Sarkozy ( Eric Zemmour once described him as "under-Sarkozy which was hardly pleasant), and finally (?) LR to Eric Zemmour.
Perhaps he would tell us that the advantage of Reconquest! is to find people whom he has met in all the parties in which he has campaigned and whom the Zemmourian party is a sort of synthesis of his political life. He would also undoubtedly answer us that it is better to change parties so as not to change your mind than the reverse. It is true but it does not correspond exactly to his profile. I will give just one example: Guillaume Peltier successively fought the European Constitutional Treaty and then defended the Lisbon Treaty which was its almost identical copy. Bad tongues could say that he is to Éric Zemmour what Aurore Bergé is to Emmanuel Macron. Cruel, but not that far from the truth.
Valérie Pécresse has mastered the organization of her campaign and her team well, which was not decided in advance since she was barely making her return to the party that chose her as a candidate.
David Desgouilles
Can this contribute to sowing discord at LR?
I do not think so. Some have described the campaign organization chart of Valérie Pécresse as a Mexican army and, even among this bloated workforce, Guillaume Peltier was not there. If the candidate and her campaign manager Patrick Stefanini had wanted to send him the sign to go and offer his services elsewhere, they would not have gone about it otherwise. The discord is sometimes caused more by keeping people reluctant than by leaving so early in the countryside. Losses in February-March would be much more damaging. François Fillon is well placed to know it… It seems to me that, unlike François Fillon, Valérie Pécresse has mastered the organization of her campaign and her team well, which was not decided in advance sinceshe was barely making her return to the party that chose her as a candidate.
Now, it is true that LR is in the grip of important internal ideological fractures, which were again manifested during the parliamentary debate on the vaccine pass, but these fractures are structural and would have manifested themselves with any other candidate. .
When you are sitting on a fault, it is not easy to get out of it: Laurent Wauquiez had also borne the brunt of it in 2019.
