Valérie Pécresse on the evening of the first round of the 2022 presidential election. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP
In an interview with Point, published this Wednesday, the former right-wing candidate took the opportunity to settle scores with Nicolas Sarkozy, who had not supported her. And evokes a “fairly difficult dialogue” with him.
It took a year and a half for Valérie Pécresse to speak at length about her violent failure in the supreme election. The president of the Île-de-France region, who had only gathered 4.78% of the votes on April 10, 2022, on the evening of the first round, therefore granted a full interview this Wednesday to the Point. Considering that “the French voted more out of fear and anger“, the president-candidate that was Emmanuel Macron “benefited from the circumstances» linked to Covid and the war in Ukraine. “Many key questions were left out“, laments Valérie Pécresse, who mocks a “campaign for nothing.» A dig which does not prevent us from assuming our responsibilities.
“I was unable to transform the essay. There was also a form of unpreparedness in me“, she admits. A bitter observation which echoes that made this summer by Nicolas Sarkozy in his latest book The Time of Fighting (Ed. Fayard): “She wasn’t ready. She had neither the team nor the maturity to face such an ordeal.» The opportunity also for Valérie Pécresse to deplore the absence of “a story» in his campaign, this “which requires time” And “teams in working order“. “Three months of campaigning is far too short» to erase certain negative image traits, she regrets. In order to better vilify the organization of the right-wing primary, which was held between the end of November and the beginning of December 2021, the former Minister of the Budget considers that the Republicans have “chose (their) candidate too late.»
If she would changea lot» things about the way her campaign went, she would not modify “Nothing” on the “proposals that she defended.» «I was unable to exploit the narrow path that could have opened up at the end of 2021 to embody a credible alternative. I lost an election, it’s true, but I didn’t lose my beliefs», she explains. As if it did not close the door to a possible candidacy in 2027. While the political violence of this electoral period “could have led to desertion or depression», Valérie Pécresse indicates having been “injured” that we “caricature the commitment of a lifetime“.
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“The future of the right is not to dissolve into macronism”
“When people demean you, when people make fun of your physique, it’s not up to par“, she explains. The president of the Ile-de-France region now intends to “show without filter.» «I protected myself, shielded myself, I put on armor. And getting rid of the armor in three months is difficult“, she says. As for those in her camp who only supported her half-heartedly or not at all, the former leader of the right retains no “grudge” Who “doesn’t lead to anything.» «I know who helped me, who didn’t help me, who was there, who wasn’t there“, she says. And to quote his former mentor Jacques Chirac: “We must always forgive, never forget.»
What then of Nicolas Sarkozy, whose lack of support before the first round, then the call to vote for Emmanuel Macron between the two rounds then to form a coalition between the president-candidate and the right, had caused a lot of noise? Valérie Pécresse did not speak to him again and explains “two fundamental differences” with him. “I think that the future of the right is not to dissolve into Macronism and that the future of France is not to kowtow to Vladimir Putin“, she confides. “This makes dialogue quite difficult.»