Sunday, April 3, the party candidate the Republicans holds a Porte de Versailles, in Paris. On February 12, his campaign had derailed during a first grand-mass in the capital.
by and
The longest hours. Saturday, February 12, eve of his first major Parisian meeting – She must hold a second, Sunday, April 3, Porte de Versailles – Valérie Pécresse finds his team at the Zenith, for a general rehearsal. She crosses the empty room, grads gauge, as far as the eye can see. On stage, the technicians set the latest details of the decor, solemn and cold: three blue, white and red languages that slide on the platform, a large transparent desk. His relatives, a dozen – of which his campaign director, Patrick Stefanini, his communication advisor, Geoffroy Didier, and his special advisor, Jean-Marc Zakhia -, disperse in the room, while the young Republicans are briefed on the moments -Clés of the speech, that will be applauded.
The penalist Francis Spziner, came the coacher, sits first. “My dear compatriots …”, begins the party candidate the Republicans (LR). The spinning lasts two hours, interrupted at regular intervals by the tenor of the bar, former lawyer of Jacques Chirac and Mayor LR of the 16 e district of Paris, who delivers his courtroom tips: how to put the gestures, the voice. When she comes down from the stage, she seems exhausted. Light floating among his advisers: “Valérie” is not ready. The day before, repeating his text in a Parisian theater, always with Spziner, she was much better, they reassure themselves. D-Day, galvanized by the 7,000 activists expected, she will be surpaced. They leave little before dinner, worried.
A “crash” live
The weak point of the candidate, better on television than the tribune, is a mystery for anyone. But, in his entourage, they were very little to advise him to get out of the codes of the meeting to cultivate his singularity, innovate. All held at this “Grand Mass”, this “sacred”, like Nicolas Sarkozy had his, in 2007. The imposing Meeting of Villepinte, during which Eric Zemmour made his “moule” on December 5th, before 10,000 overheated activists, also marked the spirits at the HQ of the contendant to the Elysee, where we arpatient. “You have to split the armor”, repeat his supports, who judge the old minister too cold and corseted.
The next day, the zenith is crowded. It has been a long time since the right, which has seen its activist numbers melt for ten years, has not gathered as many people, and young people, who typed in drums and wave flags. Pants and black jacket, micro helmet, Valérie Pécresse moves on the stage, mechanical. “Like a robot”, is alarmed with one of his “musketeers”, sitting in the forefront. “France, I love him body and property …, the more I the course, the more I get the embrace …”, “she recites, frozenly, slowly turning his head on the right, then left. Words of the Corrézian writer Denis Tillinac included in extenso, but who suddenly sound wrong. Then she forces her voice, martial, ensuring not wanting to resolve the “big replacement”.
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