The Republicans, caught between the RN and the bulk, are searching for their straight line for the European elections | EUROtoday

Sitting down in entrance of an omelette, Brice Hortefeux makes use of a metaphor on the sandwich to explain to journalists the political scenario of the appropriate, on the finish of 2023, caught between Renaissance and the National Rally (RN). He will take it once more a number of weeks later within the Figarowhereas searching for to be constructive: “But the best part of the sandwich is often the middle. »

Will François-Xavier Bellamy dare to use this image again, Saturday March 23, during his first campaign meeting in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis) before the European elections on June 9? Not sure. But the philosophy professor undoubtedly understands the concept. Head of the Les Républicains (LR) list for the European elections (as in 2019), since January he has increased thematic trips (fishing, agriculture, housing), and also runs the plateaus to avoid being invisible in a polarized campaign, according to him , by a Jordan Bardella-Emmanuel Macron duel. “At Renaissance, the candidate is not Nathalie Hayer but Macron”he repeats in regards to the interventionism of the President of the Republic.

A outcome beneath 5% would imply the disappearance of the French proper within the European Parliament. With 7% voting intentions in keeping with a survey printed on March 11 – carried out by Ipsos, in partnership with the Sciences Po Political Research Center (Cevipof), the Montaigne Institute, the Jean Jaurès Foundation and The world -, there menace nonetheless looms.

Privately, some executives are already imagining the disastrous repercussions of such a situation. The most pessimistic predict the tip of the celebration or at the very least a compelled departure of Eric Ciotti from the presidency, like Laurent Wauquiez, in 2019, after the 8.2% of the Bellamy checklist. Eternally anxious, the Nice resident has lengthy sought a substitute for a Bellamy thought-about too conservative by a few of his entourage, to recuperate these right-wing voters who left for Macronie. “Bellamy, it’s a line on the right, which cuts LR from the center”choose Hervé Marseille, president of the Union of Independent Democrats, whose celebration ought to quickly be a part of the Hayer checklist.

“Terribly competitive”

So the group is first on the lookout for a passageway between the central bloc and the far proper for these European elections. “It is not a question of adopting our speech according to segments of voters, it is the best way to speak to no one”, warns Othman Nasrou, Republican marketing campaign director. But an election stays a matter of the citizens, and that of the appropriate has shrunk. Among executives, these over 65 and even rich classes, LR faces competitors from Renaissance. The working lessons – received again by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 – shun them and favor the RN.

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