After the disappointment of the presidential election during which their candidate Valérie Pécresse won only 4.8% of the vote, Les Républicains officially launched their campaign for legislative elections in Paris on Saturday.
Nearly 400 people, including a hundred candidates for the legislative elections of June 12 and 19, are expected at the National Council which will be held from 2 p.m., behind closed doors, at the party's headquarters.
On the program: speech by leaders Annie Genevard, Christian Jacob and Gérard Larcher, video clip, as well as an intervention by Centrist allies Hervé Morin and, by video, Jean-Christophe Lagarde for the UDI, before a press conference by Christian Jacob , president of LR, at 4 p.m.
Read also "We are in mortal danger" ... the Pécresse score raises the question of the survival of LR
The party now has its list almost ready, having met its last investiture committee on Wednesday.
Most of the heavyweights (Éric Ciotti, Damien Abad, Aurélien Pradié, Annie Genevard…) are returning, even if Christian Jacob will not stand for a sixth term.
Others are launching for the first time: the former primary candidate Philippe Juvin (cited among the possible rallies to the LREM majority) in the Hauts-de-Seine, the lawyer and columnist Charles Consigny in the Yvelines… Several members of Valérie Pécresse's campaign team present themselves, from lawyer Thibault de Montbrial (Yvelines) to Geoffrey Carvalhinho (Seine-Saint-Denis) via youth president LR Guilhem Carayon in the family stronghold of Tarn .
Conversely in the 10th district of the North where Gérald Darmanin is running, the candidate invested by LR Claudine Hue announced Thursday that she was going to "support" the Minister of the Interior.
In total, about twenty candidates, although already invested, preferred to throw in the towel after the defeat of the presidential election.
But “these legislative elections are of a completely different nature”, according to Christian Jacob, who set the objective Thursday on France inter: “We are at a hundred (deputies), it is to go beyond”.
.@ChJacob77: “A legislative election is the representation of a territory.
We have a territorial anchorage, it is our difference!
🇬🇧
On June 12 and 19, choose #PourVousDéfendre MPs!
pic.twitter.com/KIa9Iq9eYZ
— Republicans #ForYouDefend (@lesRepublicains) May 5, 2022
For this, the boss of LR is counting on a "local anchorage" confirmed during the municipal and regional elections.
"This is where we, the Republicans, make the difference", he assured, criticizing "Parisianism" and "bureaucracy" of the candidates of the majority.
As for the union of the left, it is "everything and anything", he swept away.
But an LR deputy is worried about the consequences in the legislative elections: “It will be rebellious, I fear that we will take a second wave of useful votes”.
The hunt for defectors
On Saturday, the candidates will be given a "charter", which they will have to sign by the official deposit of the candidatures, affirming their political independence.
Clearly, it is a question of dissuading any temptation to rally to Emmanuel Macron.
Because “there is no possible double membership”, insists Christian Jacob since the presidential election.
After this disaster for the party which has structured French political life for decades, LR's great concern is that some deputies will go over to the macronie camp to save their seats.
After the second round of the presidential election, several elected officials (Damien Abad, Constance Le Grip, etc.) showed themselves open to a rally, in the name of the general interest, fueling speculation.
The right was also worried about recurring rumors lending to Nicolas Sarkozy, received again Tuesday at the Elysee, the intention to negotiate with Emmanuel Macron a series of rallies among the outgoing.
How many could they be in fine?
An article in the daily Le Figaro spoke Thursday of "five to seven" starters.
"We went from 60 to 30 and, today, less than 10. It's a very meager harvest", underlines a deputy.
In this context, the list of LREM nominations will be followed closely (the second wave is expected on Saturday), to see if the presidential majority puts a candidate in front of potential defectors.
The first wave on Thursday revealed that the LR deputy for Yonne Guillaume Larrivé, who had sent insistent signals, will finally have to face a Macronie candidate.
“A humiliation”, estimates the deputy already quoted, according to whom “it will cool some of them”.
