“Yes, I will be a candidate for the presidency of the Republicans,” said the finalist of the right for the presidential election on Tuesday, explaining that if he made this decision in two days, “it is for Accelerate the calendar “.
Le Monde with AFP
As for several weeks, Eric Ciotti will be “presidential candidate” of the Les Républicains (LR) party in December. The deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes “works to constitute a gathering team,” he told the France-Presse agency, confirming an announcement made on a daily basis Nice-Matin .
Arrived second at the Congress of the right for the presidential election, Mr. Ciotti had warned Sunday that he was “ready to take up the challenge” of the election to the president of the party, but that his decision was not Not “totally taken”. “Yes, I will be a candidate for the presidency of the Republicans,” he said on Tuesday July 26, explaining that if he made this decision in two days, “it is to accelerate the calendar”. The former president of the Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Council specified in Nice-Matin that he is working on the constitution of a gathering team “which will guarantee, tomorrow, the unity of our political family”.
Lawy line
“To straighten our country, he added in everyday life, there is only one way: that of the reform. It is this path that I wanted to clear during the Congress of the Republicans . The unexpected success that I obtained during this ballot encourages me to go further “. The first round of the election to the presidency of the Republicans will take place electronically from December 3 to December 4, if no candidate obtains the majority of the votes cast, a second round will be organized on December 10 and 11.
At this stage, the tenors of the party have not yet expressed preferably about the next party president, many are still recovering from the non-candidacy of Laurent Wauquiez. If Mr. Ciotti is seen as the favorite, some emit reservations about his right line and are worried about a possible party explosion. He and his loved ones refute these concerns to the world and believe that “everyone has their place. The Gaullist family is both Pasqua and Seguin, our strength is to add different people”.
Faced with Mr. Ciotti, number two of the party, Aurélien Pradié, MEP François-Xavier Bellamy or the former European commissioner Michel Barnier have expressed their interest in the presidency of the Republicans. Annie Genevard, current interim president after the departure of Christian Jacob, also said that she did not exclude being candidate.
Conversely, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Laurent Wauquiez, like that of Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand, renounced to run for the position.