After weeks of procrastination, the executive board of Renaissance is meeting on Thursday to “designate” the head of the majority list for the European elections, the presidential party said on Tuesday.
The president of the Renaissance group in the European Parliament, Valérie Hayer, is in pole position to fulfill this mission, according to information from La Tribune Dimanche confirmed to Le Parisien by several sources close to the executive.
The designated person will lead a list made up of candidates from Renaissance and its allies MoDem, Horizons and the Radical Party.
The majority will launch their campaign on March 9 during a meeting in Lille.
Even before having its head of list, Renaissance had found a name and a slogan: “Need for Europe”.
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Furthermore, the executive office of Renaissance on Thursday “will also focus on the new organization of the party,” added the presidential party.
Former minister Olivier Dussopt could be assigned a role of “number two”, according to an internal source, while the secretary general of the presidential party, Stéphane Séjourné, became Minister of Foreign Affairs in January.
Farmer's daughter
Valérie Hayer, 37, has led the centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament since January, following the appointment of Stéphane Séjourné at the Quai d'Orsay.
Unknown to the general public, the thirty-year-old was not Emmanuel Macron's first choice.
The latter would have tried to convince several heavyweights in his camp, notably his former ministers Jean-Yves Le Drian, Richard Ferrand and Julien Denormandie.
However, Valérie Hayer stood out because she ticked several boxes.
“It’s a very good choice, I campaigned for it to be her,” Nathalie Loiseau, MEP (Horizons)
and head of the Marchers list in 2019 , told Le Parisien.
(…) She will be able to defend our record which is very important.
Then, she is young compared to other heads of lists who are also young.
Finally, she has political experience without being part of a Parisian elite circle since she is rooted in Mayenne.
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Valérie Hayer is also “daughter of farmers, sister of farmers, sister-in-law of farmers, granddaughter of farmers”, she indicated at the time of her election at the head of the Renew group.
In the midst of an agricultural crisis in France and Europe, this argument undoubtedly weighed on the presidential party.
His task nevertheless promises to be difficult while in the polls, the majority is at 18% maximum with around ten points behind the RN list.