Republicans confronted with a “not easy or obvious” alternative | EUROtoday

When Laurent Wauquiez introduced collectively (remotely) the deputies of the Les Républicains (LR) social gathering, on the afternoon of Friday December 13, Michel Barnier had not but transmitted the keys of Matignon to François Bayrou. But for the president of the Republican Right group within the National Assembly, the query of his social gathering’s participation in a authorities led by the president of MoDem already arises.

“This choice is not easy or obviousadmits Laurent Wauquiez at the start of the meeting. The profile and background of François Bayrou are not the same as those of Michel Barnier. » An understatement. When the second has been loyal to the right since 1975 – from the Union of Democrats for the Republic to LR via the Rally for the Republic and the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) – the first remains perceived as a traitor for having chosen Emmanuel Macron rather than François Fillon, in 2017, or for having voted (personally) for the socialist François Hollande against Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2012.

Resentful, the former head of state did everything to block Matignon’s path to the centrist. In vain. “We must take off our glasses from the UMP era for the good of the country”argues Sarkozyist Nicolas Forissier, deputy for Indre. But, even together with his 2024 mount, LR asks to evaluate François Bayrou on his roadmap, and places ahead his (standard) priorities: firmness on the sovereign, battle in opposition to unlawful immigration, and discount in public spending somewhat than will increase in public spending. taxes.

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