MEP Valérie Hayer is in pole position to be named head of the list of the Macronist majority for the next European elections, according to information from La Tribune Sunday confirmed to AFP by several sources close to the executive. According to the Sunday weekly, the appointment of Valérie Hayer, who currently leads the centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament after the promotion of Stéphane Séjourné to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is imminent.
“Barring an unforeseeable event, it will be her,” a close friend of the head of state told AFP, when another source within the executive underlines that the decision is almost confirmed, notably before a meeting on Sunday at the ‘Elysée on the issue.
Daughter and granddaughter of farmers
Saturday, on the sidelines of the Agricultural Show, Emmanuel Macron assured that he had chosen his candidate whose official designation “will come”. “There will be a head of the list to be designated for the central bloc and which will be made official in the coming days,” he indicated, while most of the parties have already made their locomotive known, starting with the National Rally , favorite of the poll and who launched Jordan Bardella in September.
Valérie Hayer, aged 37 and originally from Mayenne, is the daughter and granddaughter of farmers who grew up on a farm in Saint-Denis-d’Anjou. Parliamentary collaborator of former minister and MEP Jean Arthuis, Valérie Hayer was a long-time member of the UDI, before joining En Marche in 2017 and then being elected to Brussels in 2019. Her probable appointment would resolve a delicate equation for Emmanuel Macron, several executives from his camp having refused this role or ruled out the hypothesis, including the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, former ministers Jean-Yves Le Drian, Richard Ferrand and Julien Denormandie.
The difficult task of countering unfavorable predictions
But Valérie Hayer, who suffers from low notoriety, will have the heavy responsibility of trying to counter unfavorable predictions in view of the June 9 election, the polls giving the majority list a good ten points behind the RN, between 16% and 18% voting intentions. In 2019, the majority, led by Nathalie Loiseau, obtained 22.4% of the votes, just behind the RN already led by Jordan Bardella (23.3%).
In the meantime, Renaissance and its allies from MoDem and Horizons have indicated that they will launch their campaign on March 9 during a meeting in Lille. Jordan Bardella will give a boost on March 3 during a first major public meeting in Marseille.