The room where the strategic council of the Les Républicains (LR) party meets, rue de Vaugirard, in Paris, is packed when Christian Jacob’s phone rings, Monday, April 11 in the morning. The day before, the results of the first round of presidential polls left the party in tatters. Never in its history had it scored so low: 4.78% of the vote. The strategic committee convened by the president of the party must settle the thorny question of the aftermath. But the candidate, Valérie Pécresse, is slightly late. Everyone is waiting for him. It is precisely she who calls Mr. Jacob. She warns him that she is improvising a microphone in the hall and that she is going to appeal for donations. In the room, everyone is looking at each other, no one was aware.
It is that for Valérie Pécresse, as for the party, the hour is serious. In the aftermath of such a defeat, it is time for political, but also financial reckoning. Below 5% of the vote, the Treasury does not reimburse the money advanced for the campaign. In the lobby of the building on rue de Vaugirard, Valérie Pécresse seems worried: “The financial situation of my campaign is now critical”she asks. “We have not reached the 5% that would allow us to obtain the 7 million from the State that we expected, she adds. Republicans cannot afford these expenses. » And to insist: “I am personally in debt to the tune of 5 million euros. »
In an attempt to fill the gap, Valérie Pécresse then launches a “national call for donations”, which will be possible directly on the website that its teams had created for the campaign. It is about, she explains, the survival of LR and, “beyond, of the republican right”. The accounts being in progress, the campaign team indicates that it does not know the exact amount of the candidate’s expenses but ensures that they are below the ceiling of 16.8 million euros: around 15 million euros.
“The finances of the party are not threatened”
Within LR, we still want to make it clear: “The finances of the party are not threatened”indicates Daniel Fasquelle, mayor of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage and treasurer of the formation.
In 2017, after the defeat of François Fillon, the former deputy had been mandated to clean up the accounts of a bloodless party, accustomed for too long to leading the way. The sale of the seat of 15and district of Paris, of which the training is now a tenant, the hunt for the slightest superfluous expense and a strict rationalization of what needed to be allowed him to carry out his mission. In anticipation of the presidential and legislative campaigns, the elected representative of Hauts-de-France has therefore set aside 8 million euros. He gave 5.5 million to the candidate. And lent him 2.5 million euros, which he intended to recover.
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