The meeting was set for 11:15 a.m. this Wednesday at the National Assembly.
The deputy (LR) for Rhône Alexandre Vincendet was summoned to the office of the Les Républicains group at the Palais-Bourbon, before deciding whether or not he would be excluded.
It is now done: by 10 votes to 2, the right-wing deputies thus chose that he would no longer officially sit among them.
Also read “He constantly provokes us”: at LR, the thorny case of Alexandre Vincendet
The day before, the former mayor of Rillieux-la-Pape (Rhône), elected to the Palais-Bourbon since 2022, had an explanation described as “muscular” with the leader of the LR deputies, Olivier Marleix.
For months and months, the behavior of the 40-year-old MP has been annoying internally.
At issue: his displayed and claimed support for former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, leader of the Horizons party, with a view to the 2027 presidential election. And this, while Éric Ciotti, president of LR, was elected on the promise to support the candidacy of Laurent Wauquiez for the next race for the Élysée.
A line considered Macron-compatible
Alexandre Vincendet never hid this support, and continued to reaffirm that Wauquiez was not able to win the right at the end of this five-year term.
While pointing out that the latter had until now not been officially designated LR candidate.
This close friend of Jean-François Copé, on a line considered Macron-compatible, since the start of the five-year term, denounced this Tuesday a "witch hunt", recalling that he had always respected the operating rules of the group, which notably ensured to its members “freedom of expression and vote”.
At LR, we consider that it was not compatible to sit within a group and defend a direct competitor for the presidential election, even though he was from its ranks until 2017.
For the Republicans, caught in a vice since 2017 between the Macronists and the Lepénists, who both seek to suffocate the right, admitting that it is possible to support a non-LR candidate amounts to implicitly recognizing that the party heir to the RPR and the The UMP is no longer able to play leading roles and is condemned to playing subordinates.
And they could not accept this.