The right party fears a broad defeat on June 12 and 19, after the historic failure of Valérie Pécresse in the presidential election.
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The Les Républicains (LR) party is experiencing a real torture. The permanent tension since the resounding failure of Valérie Pécresse in the first round of the presidential election only increases as the legislative elections, which promise to be difficult for the right, approach. A tension accentuated each time the Macronist majority publishes a new salvo of names of candidates invested by him. The executives and tenors of LR eagerly search these listings to find which among theirs would have succumbed to the sirens of Emmanuel Macron. Which would have left the ship without necessarily warning its “companions”, carrying each time with it a little of what made the strength of the French right: its human resources and its territorial anchor.
The anxiety is all the stronger for LR since the President of the Republic is slow to appoint a government in which the name of a right figure could also arise, pushing others to take the plunge and to leave a decay. Friday May 13 in the morning, it was not yet another list that brought a hit on the right formation, but an announcement by Stanislas Guerini, the Renaissance leader, the new name of the Republic on the march. The Paris deputy confirmed on France 2 what many have suspected for a few weeks: the president of the LR group in the National Assembly, Damien Abad, will not have in front of him of a majority stamped in his district of Ain . “It is a way of greeting your posture of responsibility and clarity,” said Mr. Guerini.
“Duty of clarity”
On paper, Damien Abad remains in the nails of his political training while retaining the LR bib for the legislative elections. It avoids, however, the risk of loss of votes caused by a possible competitor of the majority. Those who in his camp suspect him of wanting to rally Emmanuel Macron after the election of June 12 and 19 – even more for an appointment at the Elysée with the adviser of the president, Thierry Solère – see in this “favor” the sign that Mr. Abad is about to leave the LR group in the Assembly. A defection which, if it actually took place, would be symbolically very delicate for the right. How to continue to believe in a destiny for LR if the own leader of the parliamentary group no longer believes it and judges good to work with the majority?
worse than a possible defection, it is the ambiguity and vagueness of the situation of Mr. Abad who made react, Friday, the executives of LR, some of which demanded his resignation from the presidency of the group. “It is up to Damien Abad to clarify things,” said the world of LR, Christian Jacob. For him, the elected official “must tell his voters if he goes with the majority or if he remains in his party”.
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