LR president of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region, Laurent Wauquiez, announced this Thursday on Twitter that he was giving up running for the 2022 presidential election to “not add division to the division”. “Being a candidate for the presidential election is a decision that you take not because you simply want to, but because it is a moment when you feel in a position to rally your camp and unite the French. I consider that for me this time has not come ”, he affirmed.
In addition “I do not want to add division to the division”, he added, stressing that “the presidential candidatures on the right are multiplying in a worrying way”, a few hours after the deputy LR of the Alps -Maritimes Eric Ciotti announced that he would be a candidate for a primary from the right and the center. “Some candidates even explain that they will run without accepting a common rule,” he regretted, in an allusion to Xavier Bertrand who refuses to submit to any primary.
Being a presidential candidate is a decision you make not because you just want to, but because it’s a time when you feel in a position to rally your camp and unite the French. I do not consider that this moment has come for me.
– Laurent Wauquiez (@laurentwauquiez) August 26, 2021
“Ensure that the right assumes its convictions”
Laurent Wauquiez, who had been bound by a cure of media silence since his departure from the head of the Republicans in 2019, following poor results in the Europeans, assured him: “The freedom that I take today, I I will put it at the service of what I believe is useful for my country: first, to work for the unity of a candidate on the right; then, to ensure that the right clearly and strongly assumes its convictions ”.
For the moment three candidates are declared for a primary of the right, that the Republicans will resolve to organize if no one emerges by then: Eric Ciotti, Valérie Pécresse (ex-LR) and the LR mayor of La Garenne Colombes Philippe Juvin. To these candidates could be added Michel Barnier and Bruno Retailleau, who should unveil their intentions soon.