After the victory, and already the first contradictions, the right wants to show its unity. For her first campaign trip, the candidate Les Républicains (LR) in the presidential election, Valérie Pécresse, went to the Alpes-Maritimes on Monday, December 6, to the land of Eric Ciotti, two days after his victory against the latter during the party congress. The latter said, despite the dissensions displayed the day before, once again bring his “total support” to the candidate and repeated his “loyalty” to the party.
“It was a gesture that I wanted to make because Eric had a great campaign, she underlined on her arrival at Nice airport, where she was greeted by the one she beat by 61% of the vote against 39% at the congress on Saturday. This right is proud of itself, proud of its values. Eric has a very unique place to play in this campaign. “
After a private lunch in Nice, the two finalists of the primary went to Saint-Martin-Vésubie, where they laid a wreath in memory of the victims of the storm Alex, which affected the town at the end of 2020. They have held at the end of the afternoon, a public meeting together in Saint-Martin-Vésubie. A sign of unity from Mme Pécresse, at the start of a week devoted to “Gathering” of the political family, since the candidate should go to the strongholds of her other beaten competitors, and in particular Friday at Xavier Bertrand, in Hauts-de-France. “I want to bring together all the sensibilities of the right”, insists since Saturday the president of the Ile-de-France region.
Ciotti launches his own movement
But this trip is particularly expected because of the first criticisms launched on Sunday by Mr. Ciotti to Mr.me Pécresse. “The message that was launched yesterday [samedi] by Valérie Pécresse was not a good message ”, he said after a public meeting. In her viewfinder: an interview with TF1’s JT on Saturday evening, where the candidate refused to take up certain muscular proposals from her ex-rival, such as the creation of a “French Guantanamo” or national priority for jobs or housing. “We will talk about it tomorrow with Valérie Pécresse, I support her, but I hear that my ideas are represented with force, the ideas of a right which intends to be respected”, insisted the member of the Alpes-Maritimes, who announced this weekend the creation of his own movement, Right!
“Eric Ciotti will obviously have a very special place in my campaign, because he embodies this Pasqua right that we must honor”, greeted on his side Mme Pécresse, Monday morning on France Inter. But, she adds, “My project has been chosen, it will not be watered down and it can be enriched, but not distorted by the proposals of the other candidate comrades”. At the same time, his campaign manager, Patrick Stefanini, estimated on BFM-TV that“Eric Ciotti was clumsy in using the formula of a ‘French Guantanamo'”.
But in this upcoming presidential campaign, the congress finalist hopes to match his score of 39%. “Valérie has her project and it is naturally hers, but (…) we need to have the strength of right-wing ideas because that is what the country is waiting for ”, he argued Monday on France Bleu Azur. “These are the values of authority, identity and freedom that the French have voted for” in this congress, he said on Saturday after a campaign largely focused on insecurity and immigration.