“We must not be mistaken. It is the extreme right that is on the verge of accessing the highest functions, no one else,” declared the head of state during a meeting with members of his government at midday, according to this source.
“Not a single vote should go to the far right. We must remember that in 2017 and 2022, on the other side, on the left, everyone carried this message. Without that, your servant and you would not be here,” he added. The President of the Republic has not, however, given a clear instruction to withdraw from Sunday’s second round of elections, according to several ministerial sources.
The head of state assured that he “would always be there to guide the country”
The emotion was palpable among some ministers, three of whom withdrew to block the National Rally: Sabrina Agresti-Roubache (City and Citizenship) in Bouches-du-Rhône, Marie Guévenoux (Overseas) in Essonne and Fadila Khattabi (Disabled People) in Côte-d’Or. “Votes were broken,” summarizes a ministerial source.
The head of state also assured that he “would always be there to guide the country” and he deplored that “many are obsessed with 2027 more than with the moment, this is what has harmed us,” reported this source. “Any form of disunity is a guarantee of losing,” he said.
“If there is a risk of the RN candidate being elected, we will withdraw”
Many ministers thanked Gabriel Attal for having “taken charge of the campaign, for having been able to recreate a dynamic and for having given his body and soul” to these elections, explained a ministerial source. The head of government invited the ministers to travel “everywhere we can make a difference” and “not to waste their strength when it is a lost cause.”
“If there is a risk of the RN candidate being elected, we will withdraw,” he repeated, according to this source, who reads this remark as “case by case”. Several ministers have shown themselves to be in favor of “neither RN nor LFI”, such as Bruno Le Maire (Economy), Aurore Bergé (Equality) Christophe Béchu (Ecology) Sarah El Haïry (Childhood), Catherine Vautrin (Labor, Health) Marie Lebec (Relations with Parliament), and Marie Guevenoux (Overseas).
Conversely, Patrice Vergriete (Transport), Hervé Berville (Sea) and Fadila Khattabi expressed their preference for an “unconditional withdrawal”.