A week before the first round of the presidential election, the meeting looked like a last chance. Falling in the polls, Valérie Pécresse played her all-out this Sunday, Porte de Versailles, in Paris. In front of thousands of activists, sometimes already disillusioned, the candidate Les Républicains called on voters to “revolt against scripts written in advance” and to “turn the table upside down”. Back to this great rout, during which the name of Nicolas Sarkozy was whistled.
The heavyweights in support on stage
At the Zénith in mid-February, everything was done for Valérie Pécresse to take on the light alone. This time, candidate LR receives support on stage from the “musketeers”, her former competitors in the primary, and other executives of the movement. In a sometimes express way, about twenty speakers, including Michel Barnier, François-Xavier Bellamy, Hervé Morin, Laurent Wauquiez, Christian Jacob, Eric Ciotti, or even Xavier Bertrand mobilize the troops. “Here, there is no defeatism, no men and women who would have given up. I hear your energy, your enthusiasm, to campaign to the end, ”insists in particular the boss of Hauts-de-France.
Pécresse much more comfortable than at the Zenith
The big names heat the room without difficulty, but put a little more pressure on Valérie Pécresse, eagerly awaited after her failed performance at the last Parisian meeting. The boss of the Ile-de-France region reassures very quickly, showing herself to be much more comfortable at the microphone. “We are going to prove anyone who says the election is over. It is the French who make the election, the only thing that matters is the voice of the people of France, impatient to turn the page of this five-year term for almost nothing”. The LR candidate repeatedly castigates her opponents, in an offensive style. “Beware of counterfeits, imposters and usurpers. Emmanuel Macron, Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen are the forgers of the right. We are the heirs of it”.
“It smells scorched”… Activists already disillusioned
The performance is successful, but will it change the situation? In the spans of the meeting, the activists already seem disillusioned. “She tried hard, but something is wrong. We can clearly see that Emmanuel Macron’s program and ours are not so different, and the president benefits from the war in Ukraine, ”breathes Olivier, 72. “There is a little discouragement, we are expecting a big disappointment next Sunday… We now have to score as low as possible, and above all be ahead of Zemmour for the future,” he adds. “No one is fooled, it smells scorched for the first round. Now we have to save the furniture and bail out the water from the boat to avoid sinking, says Samuel. The important thing is to fight to the end, to make an honorable score to avoid the death of the party and why not weigh in a coalition with Emmanuel Macron, ”adds the 21-year-old activist.
Nicolas Sarkozy whistled and booed
If this April 3 were to mark the spirits, it will perhaps be for this unthinkable event a few months ago: the name of Sarkozy whistled by a right-wing audience. At the start of the meeting, the ecologist Yann Wehrling, vice-president of the regional council of Île-de-France, evokes the environmental record of the former president. His name triggers boos from the crowd, which reproaches the very influential godfather of the right for his absence in the campaign and suspects him of riding for Emmanuel Macron. “I absolutely did not want this reaction, on the contrary, you should rather applaud it…”, tries to correct the ecologist, visibly surprised. The scene says a lot about the upheavals awaiting the right, while Nicolas Sarkozy was, until now, an untouchable totem.