Valérie Pécresse likes cheese. And in the way politicians like cheese: as a letter of application to the voters, as a commitment to French culture. What she likes most about the election campaign, the Républicains presidential candidate said in a recent television interview, is the opportunity to try other cheeses all over the country. In addition, pictures were shown of Pécresse loading bags of cheese, which she describes as “very intense”, into her company car. And if there is one thing that best describes her, it is the fact that she “loves to eat”.
You can dismiss this as a minor matter, or remember the extent of national sympathy when ex-President Jacques Chirac died in 2019. At the time, two statements were made in every comment: Chirac was the last great President of France who still knew the people behind him. And Chirac really did eat very well. Much and always. Who taught Pécresse the art of cheese? From her political foster father Chirac, who made the now 54-year-old his adviser in 1998. Pécresse seems to have found her strategy in the electoral discipline of offensively shown closeness to the people.
And indeed: Pécresse is not only well prepared for this election campaign, it could not get off to a better start for her. On Saturday, Pécresse was named presidential candidate through an internal vote in her party Les Républicains. And three days later, the first poll predicts their victory for April 2022. “Pécresse beats Macron” headlined a newspaper on Wednesday as if it had already happened.
One of the common dynamics of French presidential campaigns is that the major party candidates leap forward when officially appointed. But at Pécresse this leap was unusually large: the Elabe polling institute saw it at 20 percent on Tuesday. An increase of eleven percentage points. And if Pécresse met Emmanuel Macron in the runoff election, she could beat the incumbent president. According to Elabe, it is currently 52 percent, Macron 48. Even before Pécresse prevailed among the Républicains, it was said from the Élysée that she was considered to be Macron’s “most dangerous competitor”.
“If you are on the left, you know that”
So who is Pécresse? She was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a north-western suburb of Paris, one of the wealthiest communities in France. The mother is a housewife, the father a well-known economics professor, the daughter Valérie attends the best schools. First she graduated from the renowned business school HEC, then she graduated from the elite administration college ENA, France’s cadre forge for politicians and future presidents. Her political career began under Chirac as a consultant. As a teenager, she saw herself as “neither left nor right,” Pécresse said in an interview. And adds: “But that usually means that you are on the right, because when you are on the left, you know that.”
Under Nicolas Sarkozy, who brings a tone of national identity to the Élysée like no one before him, Pécresse becomes Minister for Universities and Research in 2007. In 2015 she was elected President of the Île-de-France region, which also includes Paris. Pécresse likes to emphasize that as regional president she is saving and avoiding new borrowing. If you describe Pécresse in the words of her opponents, she is a chilled careerist who opportunistically adapts her positions to the zeitgeist. In 2012 she took part in demonstrations against “marriage for all”. These “Manif pour tous” were organized by arch-conservative Catholics who supported the right wing of the Républicains. In 2014, Pécresse said she had changed her mind that “marriage for all” should not be reversed.
In her own imagination, Pécresse is “two thirds Angela Merkel, one third Margaret Thatcher”. Pécresse chooses this comparison on the one hand to emphasize that in France the time has come for a woman to lead the state. On the other hand, because, like Merkel, she wants to be perceived as a pragmatist. And like Thatcher as a tough reformer.
But what is it about the Merkel comparison? Hardly anyone can answer that better than Marion Van Renterghem, France’s best-known Merkel biographer, who published an interview book with Pécresse in 2019 and therefore knows both women very well. “It is very fashionable to compare yourself to Merkel because of her long term in office and because of her popularity,” says Van Renterghem. Pécresse’s internal colleague in the Républicains area code, Michel Barnier, and the socialist presidential candidate Anne Hidalgo had compared themselves with Merkel. With Pécresse, however, this comparison has a credible basis: “Pécresse and Merkel have in common that she is a hardworking, calm woman who makes little money and who can work in a team. In addition, both women have managed to stand up to the machos enforce in their respective parties. “
Your big task: “to unite the extremes of your party”
Pécresse is the first woman to be run by the Conservatives as a presidential candidate. A fact that Pécresse often and proudly mentions. After her election, she thanked the members of the Républicains for “their courage” in setting up a woman. For Merkel biographer Van Renterghem, however, the parallels between Pécresse and the former chancellor end with the political identity of the two politicians. Pécresse positions itself “significantly further to the right” than Merkel. In addition, Pécresse is faced with the task of “uniting the extremes of her party. That will be difficult,” said Van Renterghem.
Pécresse had prevailed in the party’s runoff election against right-winger Éric Ciotti. Pécresse received 61 percent of the vote, Ciotti 39. A result that is high enough to make the southern French one of the most audible voices of the Républicains at the moment. Ciotti makes no secret of his ideological proximity to the right-wing extremist presidential candidate Éric Zemmour.