François Fillon has never made a secret of his closeness to Bruno Retailleau.
To the point that, according to information from Le
Parisien
confirmed to Le
Figaro
, the former prime minister recently took back his card from the Republicans, to be able to participate in the vote to elect the new boss of the right - which finally saw Éric Ciotti win. .
At the beginning of December, on the eve of the first round of the ballot, François Fillon thus - according to a source close to the two men - called his "
faithful friend
" Bruno Retailleau, to announce his approach to him, and to renew his support for him.
“
I could always count (on him) in difficult times.
He has solid convictions, an experience forged on the lands of Vendée and Pays de la Loire
", he had also published on his Twitter account at the start of the school year in September, after the declaration of candidacy of the boss of senators LR in
Le Figaro
.
Since his defeat in the 2017 presidential election, against the backdrop of legal cases, François Fillon had withdrawn from national politics, already at the time ceding the presidency of his current "Republican Force" to Bruno Retailleau.
Converted into the private sector, the former prime minister had not renewed his membership of LR in the past five years.