Nicolas Sarkozy estimated on Wednesday that the “only effective bulwark” against Marine Le Pen in 2027 would be a “candidate of the republican right” capable of “federating the right-wing elements who are in Mr. Macron’s majority” and those currently “in opposition”. “There is one thing that is certain, it is that the only effective bulwark against Marine Le Pen (…) is to have a candidate from the Republican right who is able to federate the right-wing elements who are in the majority of Mr. Macron and the right-wing elements who are in the opposition. Without unity between these two camps, nothing will be possible”, declared Nicolas Sarkozy on TF1. “We will have to create the conditions for this gathering,” added the former president.
Gérald Darmanin, “someone I love very much, who has been very loyal”, insists Nicolas Sarkozy
Asked about Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, whom he dubs for the presidency in his latest book, Nicolas Sarkozy replied: “He is someone I love very much, who has been with me with great fidelity. I appreciate its modest origins, I appreciate the fact that it is not formatted like so many others by the big schools”. “Afterwards, will he be a candidate one day? It is he who will decide. Will he one day be elected? My God, it is still so long. there are still four years. Let’s try to see with the current President of the Republic what can be done,” he added. “When you are a government party, you never play the worst policy,” he said to the Republicans (LR).
In 2022, Nicolas Sarkozy supported the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, and not the candidate of LR, Valérie Pécresse. He also judged Wednesday “unfair and insulting” the “illegitimacy lawsuit” brought according to him to the leader of the National Rally Marine Le Pen. “A party which presents candidates for elections and which has a parliamentary group of a hundred deputies, how can we say that they are not Republicans? And I do not like this systematic trial on the far right, these lessons moral,” he said.
However, “I am not for Mrs Le Pen because I think she does not have the experience, she does not have the team and she does not have the project. Her economic project is detestable. This is the project of the left thirty years ago. (…) I will never vote for her”.