If he did not wish to
“break the principle of the voting booth”,
he revealed enough to instill doubt.
By revealing that he had never
“voted for Emmanuel Macron”
, François-Xavier Bellamy opened the breach of assumptions about possible support for Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential elections of 2017 and 2022.
To discover
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Questioned this Monday morning by France Inter journalist Sonia Devillers, the head of the Republican (LR) list refused on several occasions to indicate the nature of his past ballots, while emphasizing his firm opposition to the President of the Republic .
“I didn’t vote for Emmanuel Macron either because I never believed in Macronism.
(…) Emmanuel Macron was for me, through the “at the same time”, the incarnation of confusion
,” he explained.
By contesting the idea of
“a perpetual second round”
between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, François Xavier Bellamy is trying to reestablish
“the real European divide, (…) the one which distinguishes the left and the right”
.
But by ignoring the traditional cordon santé around the RN, the right-wing candidate did not fail to make his political adversaries jump, particularly at Renaissance.
Also read: These RN deputies who are subject to the “sanitary cordon”
“We are still waiting for the answer”
In the process, the official campaign account of Valérie Hayer, the leader of the majority for the Europeans, reacted on X to the prevarications of François-Xavier Bellamy.
“We’re still waiting for the answer
,” he joked.
And, while LR is regularly accused of taking up the party's proposals, particularly in matters of migration, Renaissance deputy Mathieu Lefèvre pretended to question the head of the Republican list: "Why not
join Marine Le What if you already vote for her?
Same story with the majority deputy Benjamin Haddad:
“Questioned six times about his vote in 2022, Bellamy evades and refuses to say whether he voted for Marine Le Pen.
Where has the party of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy gone, which has always fought the extremes?
For her part, MEP Laurence Sailliet, former LR spokesperson and supporter of Emmanuel Macron in 2022, once again distanced herself from the right-wing candidate after explaining to the
JDD
that she did not wish
to “lead this fight [of the European ] alongside François-Xavier Bellamy
.
“So Le Pen?
Number 2 on Saturday, number 1 today.
Illustration by example of the choice of my withdrawal
,” she added on X this Monday.
The exit of the leader of the LR caused a reaction even in the environmentalist ranks.
European MP
Karima Delli was moved by François-Xavier Bellamy's declaration on
Really the party that nominated him is called the Republicans?
It’s definitely time to change their name and call themselves the RN directly!”
.
In February 2022, like Éric Ciotti before him, Bellamy had in fact declared his preference to vote for Éric Zemmour in the event of a duel with Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the presidential election.