The Republicans’ summer school takes place this Saturday, in La Baule (Loire-Atlantique) as every summer. Several candidates for a possible primary will be present while doubt still hangs over how the representative of the right will be appointed in 2022.
Who are the participants?
Several elected Republicans are expected: Gilles Platret, mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône, Daniel Fasquelle, mayor of Touquet, the president of Pays de la Loire Christelle Morancais, the former minister Éric Woerth or the MEP François-Xavier Bellamy. Bruno Retailleau, who announced this Friday in Le Figaro not to be a presidential candidate, will also be present. More than 300 supporters are also expected to attend the debates.
Two candidates for a potential right-wing primary will be there physically: Michel Barnier, former chief negotiator of the European Union for Brexit, and Philippe Juvin, mayor of La Garenne-Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine). Valérie Pécresse, also a candidate, will intervene in duplex from Brive, in Corrèze, where she is making her comeback with her “Free!” Movement.
Xavier Bertrand, who has already made his comeback on Wednesday in Chinon (Indre-et-Loire), is one of the big absentees. Just like Eric Ciotti, candidate for a right-wing primary, who will be in Levens, near Nice. Laurent Wauquiez will not be in the game either. After finally giving up his candidacy, he will make his traditional ascent of Mont Mézenc this Sunday.
What will it be about?
Several round tables are planned. In the morning, Éric Woerth will lead a discussion on rurality. A debate will follow on the values that will have to be defended by the right in the presidential elections of 2022. François-Xavier Bellamy should then discuss international news. Finally, Agnès Evren, MEP, will host a final conference on the impact of the health crisis and the future of the “sacrificed generation”.
What about the primary?
The process of appointing the right-wing candidate for the presidential election is a priori not on the agenda. If the idea of a primary is in everyone’s mind, nothing has yet been done. Christian Jacob, president of the party, is still waiting for a candidate to naturally stand out from the others.
The party’s statutes have included the open primary system since 2015, but these could be changed. The mayor of Antibes Jean Leonetti is responsible for thinking about the best system to decide between the candidates. A survey, ordered by LR from Ifop to test all the candidates declared before August 30, could be decisive. The results will be known in mid-September. Anyway, the question should be definitively settled on September 25, at a congress where members will be invited to vote.
Opposite, on the side of the Socialists, the holding of a primary has in any case this Friday been recorded. But it will be done internally, said Olivier Faure on France Inter. Referring to the primary citizen of the PS in 2011, the first secretary of the Party explained that he did not want “like all Socialists, to relive moments of division which serve our candidacy more than they serve it”.