It was a long-awaited step in the camp of Emmanuel Macron, who must launch his campaign to try to catch up with the National Rally.
Renaissance MEP Valérie Hayer was made official this Thursday as head of the majority list for the European elections, in an interview with Le Figaro.
The president of the Renaissance group in the European Parliament will participate in the Renaissance executive bureau which meets at 6:30 p.m. at the party headquarters.
After a number of refusals in the presidential camp, from Bruno Le Maire to Julien Denormandie, and a number of hypotheses circulating in the press, from Jean-Yves Le Drian to Olivier Véran, Emmanuel Macron's choice fell on this 37-year-old woman, originally from Mayenne, still largely unknown to the general public.
From the UDI
“Daughter, granddaughter and sister of farmers”, graduate in public law, former vice-president of the Mayenne departmental council, Valérie Hayer comes from the centrist UDI party.
Former parliamentary collaborator of ex-minister Jean Arthuis in the European Parliament, she joined Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and was elected MEP in 2019.
In January, she took over as head of the Renaissance group from Stéphane Séjourné, long anticipated for the head of the list but ultimately named Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Gabriel Attal.
Valérie Hayer, “a farmer's daughter, who comes from the west where there are a certain number of pro-European voters, who comes from the UDI at a time when the UDI wants to join the majority, this is not not the stupidest idea,” recently judged an executive from the presidential camp.
In the European Parliament, she notably took an active part in the negotiations of the multiannual budget and the post-Covid recovery plan.
And diligently attacked “the extreme right purveyor of fake news” and the “crass imposture” of his competitor RN Jordan Bardella, in unison with the presidential camp.
“The impression of a default choice”
The RN is currently well ahead of the majority in the polls ahead of the June 9 election.
An Odoxa study published Tuesday credits the Bardella list with 30% voting intention, compared to 19% for the Macronist list.
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The majority - Renaissance, MoDem, Horizons, Radical Party -, probably joined in this campaign by the centrists of the UDI, will launch their campaign on March 9 during a meeting in Lille.
The slowness of the designation of the head of the list aroused the growing impatience of part of the majority, while the competition, from Mr. Bardella to Raphaël Glucksmann (PS-Place Publique) via François-Xavier Bellamy (LR ), Manon Aubry (LFI), Marie Toussaint (Ecologists) and Léon Deffontaines (PCF), are already in the running.
“We are having trouble getting into the campaign because we took time to name the head of the list, which gives the impression of a default choice, even if Valérie Hayer is a good candidate, respected in the European Parliament, with a lot of energy,” judged a Renaissance source in the Assembly this week.
Breaking through the wall of notoriety
An advisor to the executive judges her to be "super solid", "very good on the merits of the files" and endowed with assets to "continue to seek out the LR electorate", while worrying about a profile judged elitist who “really embodies what is criticized” in the presidential camp.
Valérie Hayer head of the list, “it’s not good for us,” says a source within the LR delegation in Brussels.
His first challenge will be to break through the wall of notoriety against already proven candidates, several of whom were already at the top of the list five years ago, starting with Jordan Bardella.
Which hardly seems to worry Renaissance, which is counting on the active participation of Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal in the campaign.