Meeting in the national investiture committee on Tuesday morning, the elected representatives of the Les Républicains party fixed the names of those who are embarking on the European adventure.
Meeting in the National Investiture Committee (CNI) this Tuesday morning, the Republicans put an end to the long suspense concerning the composition of their list for the Europeans, embodied until then by the leading trio François-Xavier Bellamy, the farmer Céline Imart and General Christophe Gomart. This list, finalized Monday evening, includes around thirty names. Of the 80 members of the CNI, around fifty were present on April 30 at the party headquarters to take note of the decision.
Several names had been circulating behind the scenes for weeks and regularly questioned about the composition of this list, Les Républicains had promised a balance between renewal and experience. According to several corroborating sources, Nadine Morano and Brice Hortefeux, whom some on the right have regularly said are very threatened, can rejoice: after multiple internal pressures, the two MEPs retained their place in eligible position (6th and 7th places).
Geoffroy Didier falls to 11th position
Small surprises should be noted, such as the presence in 4th grade of Isabelle Le Callennec, former LR MP for Ille-et-Vilaine, followed by Laurent Castillo, elected representative from Nice and professor of medicine. The outgoing MEPs, Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé and Anne Sander, are in 8th and 10th place respectively. Guilhem Carayon, president of young LR, is in 9th place when Geoffroy Didier, outgoing MEP, falls to 11th position. Finally, as she announced in our columns, Emmanuelle Mignon, former chief of staff of Nicolas Sarkozy, is in 12th place.
At the beginning of March, while negotiations were going well within the party, Le Figaro revealed the main trends of the list. An article which had created a little disturbance within the party and relaunched discussions among the contenders… If these trends are confirmed today, there is one who will ultimately not embark on the European adventure with LR: Patrick Dray, special advisor to the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher. 9th place was offered to him but he refused, expressing his dissatisfaction to Eric Ciotti.
Moreover, the senators present at the CNI also expressed their disapproval. Gérard Larcher and Bruno Retailleau abstained from the vote. According to our information, Michèle Tabarot, MP and president of the CNI, refused to present the list. So it was Eric Ciotti who had to do it. Behind the scenes in the Senate, people are surprised by the choice of Castillo in 5th position: “Instead of an Oto-Rhino doctor, it would have been preferable to put a resuscitator on the LR list”we squeak.
Of course, everyone is eligible if the Republicans reach 12% of votes on June 9. The march is high, while LR barely manages to exceed the 8.5% mark in the polls… In the meantime, some on the right are wondering about the consequences of this choice. The right should also reveal in total and for the moment, the 31 names on their list (which, in total, will number 81). Among them, we can notably see the presence of Frédéric Nihous, former president of Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Traditions; the senator, Valérie Boyer (14th) or even the party’s director of studies, Aurélien Caron.