Chiraquienne at heart, Valérie Pécresse would probably not deny the famous phrase of her mentor according to which "shit fly in squadron".
While the candidate accuses a polling backlash, an investigation carried out by the newspaper Liberation tells that the primary which led to her appointment at the beginning of December would have been marred by a certain number of manipulations.
Thus, many members deemed "false" or "puppet" could have participated in the ballot which brought together some 139,000 voters.
According to the daily, while the level of participation in this election was a crucial issue, the camps of several candidates, including Valérie Pécresse, thus struggled to "make cards".
Until enrolling people who knew nothing about this competition.
Nothing illegal, but...
“Liberation lights the fuse.
The supports of Zemmour and Macron who engage.
To hit the only candidate who can beat Macron, they decided to let go of the dogs!
retorted Jonas Haddad, one of the spokespersons for candidate LR, on Twitter.
Dogs ?
A reference, voluntary or not, to the fact that a member would have succeeded in registering his pet, without the right-wing party seeing anything wrong.
On social networks, the teams of Zemmour, then those of En Marche made their headlines from the anecdote.
The Republicans said they were going to file a complaint against Liberation
Denouncing an "attempt to destabilize", Les Républicains said in a press release that they were going to file a complaint against the daily.
“The Congress of Republicans has been exemplary in every way, both in its organization and in its mobilization”, assures the party, pointing out “approximations, innuendos and unfounded allegations” aimed “clearly at delegitimizing the candidate”.
Reached by telephone, a Pécresse campaign executive shrugs his shoulders: "From what I see there, there's nothing really industrial about it...", he slips.
Not what, to hear him, taint the validity of the ballot.
“For this vote in Congress, there were extremely meticulous checks.
Our problem was rather that many members were excluded from the vote because they had not given the necessary elements to vote, "contested Senator LR Philippe Bas, also at the head of the control body of the LR Congress, at the microphone of Public Senate.
The first round of voting had been extremely tight between the LR leaders.
But if no one will publicly hold Valérie Pécresse to account, the risk is that this media flurry will help to rock a campaign that is already facing difficulties internally.