PARIS, April 12 (Reuters) – With 12 days to go before the second round of the presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy broke his silence on Tuesday to announce his support for Emmanuel Macron, dealing a new blow to his political family which is struggling to recover from the historic defeat. by Valrie Pcresse on April 10.
The former head of state, who had never given public support to the Republican candidate and had strongly criticized his campaign in private, explained in a message broadcast on social networks that he will vote Emmanuel Macron on April 24 ” because I believe he has the necessary experience in the face of a serious international crisis that is more complex than ever”.
Nicolas Sarkozy also responds favorably to the appeal launched on Sunday evening by the outgoing president for the foundation of “a great movement of unity and action”.
“Fidelity to the values of the Republican right and our culture of government must lead us to respond to Emmanuel Macron’s call for a rally,” he wrote.
For Nicolas Sarkozy, the outgoing president is “as things currently stand, the only one in a position to act. France’s interest must be our only guide. We are never wrong in choosing clarity and consistency.”
“A new era is coming. It will require profound changes. It will be necessary to get out of habits and partisan reflexes”, he underlines, in an implicit address to the Republicans.
He also believes that Emmanuel Macron’s economic project “puts the promotion of work at the center of all its priorities”.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s position was expected, the press having echoed behind-the-scenes negotiations between the strongman of the Republican right and the majority to create the conditions for an agreement between La Rpublique en Marche and LR for the legislative elections in June.
The former president reportedly had lunch at Bercy with the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire (ex-LR) to discuss, according to several media, the hypothesis of the rallying of around sixty deputies Les Républicains a possible future majority.
DIVIDING LINE
The deputy LR Guillaume Larriv had sketched out this path of union in March, believing that there were “strong convergences between the project presented by LR and the presidential project of Emmanuel Macron”.
In the grip of financial difficulties – Valrie Pcresse (4.78%) did not reach the 5% necessary to reimburse her campaign expenses -, torn over the need for a deep update or a link to the vast training that ‘Emmanuel Macron is calling for the Les Rpublicains party to adopt its official position for the second round on Monday.
“No vote can be cast on Marine Le Pen,” said the political office in a press release, without however formally calling to vote for Emmanuel Macron, whom he accuses of having “raised the votes of despair”.
“The Republicans are neither fungible in Macronism nor in Lepenism. There is another way: that of the Republican right which must exist by itself”, can we read.
On Tuesday, several LR officials dissociated themselves from Nicolas Sarkozy’s appeal.
“I will not respond to this call, which will draw a dividing line from the extended LR camp. (…) This may be the moment when the Republican right will part ways with Nicolas Sarkozy. And I say this with infinite respect “, declared the vice-president of the party, Gilles Platret, to Le Monde.
LR deputy from Vaucluse Julien Aubert, who announced that he would vote blank on April 24, deplored a licking on Twitter.
“We were waiting before the first round for you to come and help your political family. You are speaking now. It’s too late, like Grouchy Waterloo,” he wrote.
Bruno Retailleau, president of the LR group in the Senate, underlines in a tweet that Nicolas Sarkozy’s position is “personal”. “We will not rebuild the right by diluting ourselves in macronism,” he said.
Gilbert Collard, former member of the National Rally which rallied Eric Zemmour, estimated on Twitter that “the last betrayal of Nicolas Sarkozy puts an end to the LR fiction which is no more than the antechamber of the macronie”.
“The right has a single leader, Eric Zemmour, and a single party, Reconqute!”, he adds. (Written by Myriam Rivet and Sophie Louet, said by Bertrand Boucey)