Nadine Morano, Eric Ciotti and Brice Hortefeux, during the visit of the president of LR to the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, on June 13, 2023. MICHAEL ZUMSTEIN / VU AGENCY
In the history of France, they are often summoned when the crisis is brewing. The Les Républicains (LR) party intends to get out of it with the launch of its general embly, Saturday June 17, in Paris. Its project manager, MEP Geoffroy Didier, chose a left-wing arrondist (11e) and the Cirque d’Hiver room as a setting. To avoid experiencing a final electoral lap in 2027 with a fourth defeat in a row in a presidential election, Eric Ciotti wants his party to phosphorus and advance by force of ideas. “It is a moment of revitalization of a party which has been an electoral machine in the past, but which has no longer rested to reflect”, believes the president of LR elected in December 2022.
The promise is not new, nor is the concept for a leader of the right. Only the name actually changes. Jean-François Copé had his “states general of the reconquest” in 2012, Bernard Accoyer (then secretary general of LR) his “refoundation workshops” five years later, and Christian Jacob had all the trouble in the world to organize its “congress of ideas” in 2021 in the context of a health crisis. “Each time, the party did not get much out of it, observes Emilien Houard-Vial, doctoral student at Science Po and specialist in LR. There is a report, a charter at the end but nothing binding and saying “here are our ideas, our line now”. »
But, to listen to Geoffroy Didier, these new Estates General are not intended to deliver a turnkey program to the future champion of the party. “Our goal is that the French finally know what the right is the name of. Our new doctrine will serve as a runway for the future presidential candidate, whoever he may be. The question of incarnation is independent of this collective reflection. »
“The Courage to Make Choices”
In preparation for this meeting, this close friend of Mr. Ciotti chained the interviews and saw ” everyone “, from François Fillon to Nicolas Sarkozy via Edouard Balladur or the contenders announced for 2027 – Laurent Wauquiez and Xavier Bertrand. The first will be absent, but excused by Eric Ciotti who announces a “delocalized sequence” on the lands of the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. The second confirmed his presence. “This initiative makes sense, because we are going to talk about the substance, even if it will also bring out the differences between us”, believes the boss of Hauts-de-France who, through his movement We France, seeks to embody a social and labor right.
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