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Maxime Tandonnet: "The future president of LR will have to reconcile the French with politics and democracy"

2022-12-05T15:39:17.917Z


FIGAROVOX/TRIBUNE - Whether his name is Éric Ciotti or Bruno Retailleau, the next party boss will have no choice, if he wants to straighten out the classic right, but to develop a long-term project, analyzes the essayist. This means, according to him, putting an end to narcissistic communication,...


Historian and essayist, Maxime Tandonnet is the author of numerous critically acclaimed works.

He has notably published

1940: another November 11

(Tallandier, 2009),

History of the Presidents of the Republic

(Perrin, 2013, published in paperback in the Tempus collection and updated in 2017),

Les Parias de la République

(Perrin, 2017 ) and

André Tardieu, the misunderstood

(Perrin, 2019).

Last book published:

Georges Bidault.

From the Resistance to French Algeria (

Perrin, 2022, 368 p., €23.50).

Can the classic right (the Republicans), torn between Marine le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, bounce back after three defeats in the presidential and legislative elections and worrying polls (72% of French people think "that it has no future )?

In an unfavorable context, where betrayals, poaching, an air of time both hostile and ironic, is the bet of a revival of an independent right illusory or audacious?

The politico-media system dreams of a political life reduced to the model of a third progressive force (macronist), an irremovable shield of "good" confronted with two "extreme" (Nupes and RN).

The election of the president of LR is presented as a step in the resistance to this fatality.

Éric Ciotti, leading the first lap, and Bruno Retailleau will therefore come face to face in the second.

Their duel is not ideological.

Both are campaigning on the same line marked on the right: control of immigration, restoration of authority, fight against deficits and public debt, priority given to freedom of enterprise.

They dismiss the prospect of a “government agreement” with the majority;

they share the vision of a crushing balance sheet of the team in power (explosion of public debt, deindustrialization and record trade deficit, collapse in schools, hospitals, energy, security, migration);

they anticipate its growing unpopularity and intend to offer the French a possibility of real and credible alternation.

Read also Nicolas Sarkozy invites Emmanuel Macron to reach out to LR

The real difference between Mr. Ciotti and Mr. Retailleau concerns the strategy of regaining power.

Members are called upon to choose between two priorities: that of incarnation and that of the project.

Éric Ciotti advocates the appointment, from 2023, of the right-wing candidate for 2027 and comes out in favor of Laurent Wauquiez.

He sees in the absence of an undisputed leader the cause of the failures of the right in the face of political currents whose leader is well identified: Mr. Macron for LREM which has become Renaissance, Mrs. le Pen for the RN.

He invokes the Gaullist tradition which claims without complex the cult of the chef, and refers to Jacques Chirac's famous formula for a

"chef knowing how to chef"

.

It thus breaks with the logic of appointing the candidate just before the presidential deadline in the context of primaries (open or closed) and reconnects with a principle according to which the right must, in order to win, identify in advance with a personality (like Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007).

Its true mission will be of the order of political morality.

It will aim to offer an image of flawless exemplarity and unconditional respect for the people.

Maxime Tandonnet

On the contrary, Bruno Retailleau wants to put the development of the project at the top of LR's priorities: before knowing who our candidate will be, let's know what we want.

Appointing a candidate four years in advance would, according to him, expose him to mishaps and possible failures.

The choice of a clear line must take precedence over that of a man and it is time to break with the “Chirac and Sarkozy era”.

He intends to leave the game open to various candidates: Laurent Wauquiez, of course, but also Xavier Bertrand (more popular in opinion than with members) or David Lisnard, charismatic president of the Association of Mayors.

The members will, much later, be called upon to designate the single candidate of the right in a logic of internal democracy.

So which of the two is right?

The lead taken by Éric Ciotti in the first round underlines the popularity of his vision among the members.

In favor of his thesis, it is certain that the cemetery of excellent right-wing projects, never applied because of defeat, is full to bursting.

Good programs are not enough to win an election.

What is needed above all is momentum and credibility with public opinion.

However, trust is more about the character of people than about the quality of a program.

However, this approach carries the risk of tiring public opinion through excessive personalization of politics to the detriment of the debate of ideas.

Moreover, history shows that the choice of a champion can never be decreed.

The last winners on the right imposed themselves and did not proceed from a choice of staff.

Finally, we must rely on

"the force of history"

of Charles Péguy, that is to say the unpredictable.

An extremely troubled or even chaotic period is likely to open up for France.

Who can anticipate the state of mind of the country, in more than four years, after a thousand upheavals – and therefore the profile of the ideal candidate?

The revival of the right, in a tormented context, depends on the ability of its various leaders to respond to the concerns and sufferings of the country, well beyond the partisan structure and ideological borders.

Read alsoMaxime Tandonnet: “The right will be popular and social or will no longer be”

How can the future president of LR take his full part in this recovery?

Above all by working to reconcile the French with politics and democracy.

He will have to reach out to a nation overwhelmed by a wave of disgust which results in record abstentionism (60% in the legislative elections).

Its true mission will be of the order of political morality.

It will aim to offer an image of flawless exemplarity and unconditional respect for the people – the only leader in a democracy – in a country traumatized for too long by the contempt of its ruling elites, favors and self-esteem.

And to offer him a vision of politics oriented towards action in the sole service of the national interest, in a long-term perspective, rather than a frantic race for narcissistic communication,

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-12-05

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