While he was responsible for reflecting on the tie-up between the right-wing presidential candidates and pleaded for an open primary, Jean Leonetti is now “worried”. The mayor LR of Antibes thus warns after the choice on Saturday of the members of his party to designate their champion in the race for the Elysee by the option of a two-round congress.
“We have chosen a closed double-ended procedure: vis-à-vis sympathizers and central parties, our historical allies. We will not win the presidential election without the center right, which represents a third of our electorate, ”he explains in an interview with JDD to be released this Sunday. Above all, according to him, “you never win a presidential election by withdrawing into yourself”.
“Time is an adversary”
“To participate in the congress, it will be necessary to be inserted, and that will generate adhesions which will increase the mass of the militants. But if we have 60,000 voters on D-Day, it will be half the number of participants in the primary of the Greens… ”, adds Jean Leonetti.
The elected representative of the Alpes-Maritimes also calls for “to decide quickly”, that is to say before the date of December 4, the choice of the candidate on the right. “Time is an adversary (…). It is damaging to wait too long in indecision, division and withdrawal. Today, we talk more about Eric Zemmour than about us, and Édouard Philippe is maneuvering to bring together elected officials and activists from the right and the center. By dint of decanting, we will be disillusioned ”.
Xavier Bertrand in the lead
According to an Ifop poll for the Sunday Newspaper, Xavier Bertrand is considered by the French as the right-wing candidate most able to beat Emmanuel Macron. 28% of those polled see the former Minister of Health winning against the Head of State, against 8% for Valérie Pécresse and 5% for Michel Barnier. Among the LR supporters alone, Xavier Bertrand is the favorite with 63% of respondents considering him capable of beating the President of the Republic. Michel Barnier comes in second position (11%). Valérie Pécresse is third (8%).
But according to the survey conducted among a sample of 1,002 people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over, 55% of those questioned consider that no right-wing candidate will be able to beat the current tenant of the Elysee Palace. .