Laurent Wauquiez decided to break his silence. He does not yet say that he will be a presidential candidate in 2027 but over the course of this long interview with Le Point, he is clearly positioning himself as presidentiable, ready to meet many challenges.
The strategy of erasure that he had assumed and chosen, had raised questions within the Republicans. By confiding in two journalists of the weekly today, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, under pressure, will nevertheless have kept a recent promise from his entourage in Le Figaro announcing that he would not remain silent for four years. So it is done. And the regional elected official opens up on several themes, starting with that of pensions.
Faced with this reform that has not finished talking about it, he considers in particular that the right "should not" oppose it even if another reform was possible". He advocates a "totally new approach", believing that the French should be able to retire "whenever they want" and defends the idea of offering "greater flexibility on capitalization". In addition, Laurent Wauquiez would have preferred a "clearer" right on the subject and does not believe that this reform will allow a burst of France.
Disintegration and deconstruction
Asked at the same time about the social climate of the country, the regional president believes that "all Western democracies are struck by the same deep evil, this feeling of disintegration". "This is the culmination of what I call the ideology of deconstruction," he adds. "This ideology of the deconstruction of benchmarks shakes our country more than any other," he continues, before denouncing "a feeling of collapse of our values that leads to a form of sadness". "See the humiliating way in which the Comoros responds to us on the migration issue and how the major international powers treat us!" he points out while saying he is "convinced" that the France can "regain hope".
Macron spared
His judgment on Emmanuel Macron breaks with the severity perceptible at LR. "I am struck that the one whose laurels were braided yesterday is now described as the cause of all evils," says Laurent Wauquiez. He judges, "of course" that the head of state has "a share of responsibility" and that he will bequeath "at worst a country exploded into archipelagos" but he adds: "For all that Emmanuel Macron is not responsible for this decadence. He is responsible for not having been able to correct it." Macron seems to him to have "succeeded in embodying the France internationally". "He gave impetus at European level, he carried an ambition, ideas. He did not shame us, unlike his predecessor at times. But the weight of the France has continued to weaken," he said. But a little further, he also believes that this president "was never Jupiter". "By dint of wanting to decide everything, he no longer decides anything.... This way of leading the country has become archaic, "accuses Laurent Wauquiez, praising "the spirit of the Fifth Republic".
'French machine blocked'
But what are Laurent Wauquiez's solutions? "Go to the root of the problem" and understand that "the French machine is blocked because the pilots have lost control". "The France, which was a machine for producing success, finds itself in a situation comparable to the Fourth Republic; The executive is theoretically all-powerful but has become a naked king, a dancing king, certainly, but a naked king." The regional elected representative denounces a "deep" administrative state, advocates the "suppression of almost all independent authorities", and accuses the "supreme courts" of having arrogated to themselves "the power to set aside the law". If he considers that the Constitutional Council is in its role when it controls the law, he nevertheless accuses its president Laurent Fabius of doing "politics" when he "exhumes a so-called principle allowing to sit on the rules of the Republic to welcome foreigners in an irregular situation". "By dint of having put counter-powers, there is no more power," adds Laurent Wauquiez, who proposes to write a "simple principle" in the Constitution: "The highest courts, with the exception of the Constitutional Council, cannot set aside the law. When the people have spoken, the law that reflects their will must apply."
Breathing vs. bureaucratic state
For him, the centralized state has become a state of bureaucrats and lawyers who produce standards, who take care of everything and therefore nothing." He calls for decentralization: "Let the prefects, the mayors, the local elected officials do it. Let's give flexibility to the country, let's offer it this breath! Freedom!" The potential candidate of the right in the presidential election also considers it "dangerous" to "challenge the legitimacy of the vote as the Nupes does" but sees the referendum as a necessary breath to "ease tensions". "A people becomes irresponsible when they are despised and always rise to the occasion, when they are consulted, leaving them the choice," he said.
Marine Le Pen and LR
Asked about his position against Marine Le Pen, he replied: "I don't think Marine Le Pen is in itself a problem for the French, but I think Marine Le Pen in power is a problem for the French." As for relations with his own political family and in particular with the president of the Republicans who would have liked him to impose himself more quickly as the incarnation of the LR, Laurent Wauquiez salutes the "courageous work" of Eric Ciotti. "The bond that unites us is deep and lasting (...) We share the same desire to prepare the country's revival." He also believes that the LR family "must totally reinvent itself".
Then the former president of the LR is questioned on several targeted subjects. For example, what does he think about public services? "Let's stop making people believe that those who work in public services are privileged, leather circles who would not do their job. Above all, I saw people who were dedicated but exhausted by administrative rules." What about national education? He is willing to "put money into it... if, on arrival, children leave primary school knowing how to read, write and count".
Mea culpa
On a more personal note, he says: "Yes, I have experienced failures. Yes, I took scars. I learned about the loneliness of failure. I learned to question myself, and it did me a lot of good." In his self-criticism, he believes that "ambition is not a dirty word" but should not be a "self-centered ambition". "Presidents who have fulfilled their ego by being elected to the Élysée, we have them on all the shelves of our history. Presidents who have reversed the course of things, it's rarer!" he said, before citing Georges Pompidou as a model. "Like De Gaulle, he was clever politicians, but he never forgot the ultimate end: the recovery of the country. This is my only determination today," he said, before making his mea culpa. "I was a government spokesperson and I let myself be intoxicated for a time by this ease of thinking that by taking out a little sentence, by making the buzz, we fulfill our mission." But Laurent Wauquiez also seems to project himself into responsibility when he believes that the French "will want experience, because they have seen the limits of a President of the Republic to whom he will probably have missed having learned by climbing the ladder little by little". His biggest regret? "I have, at times, allowed myself to be damaged, dragged down by mediocre politics, by political confrontation and the game of small sentences," he concedes.
The death of happy globalization
Laurent Wauquiez believes that our society is at a "major historical turning point". "We were sold the dream of happy globalization, of the global village without borders, without war, with megacities connected to each other, without factories, without worrying about where we produced. This model is dead," he said, identifying a "competition between nations" in which the France would have "sacrificed" its "interests" and its "sovereignty". "We must give back to the country in its depth a future and its dignity," he argues.
So many confidences that finally, without saying it, install a candidacy for the next presidential election. With an obvious political refocusing turned towards those right-wing voters who had fled Les Républicains to join Emmanuel Macron and his promises.