The former president is dropped by Les Républicains sympathizers, according to our Ifop-Fiducial dashboard for Paris Match. They did not accept that the former president does not support Valérie Pécresse during the presidential election. A tumble that marks a turn to the right.
The unbolted statue. Undeniable herald of the right for nearly a quarter of a century, Nicolas Sarkozy is no longer a prophet in his political family. The recent presidential election sealed the divorce between the right and the former President of the Republic. The last delivery of the Ifop-Fiducial dashboard for Paris Match indeed marks the end of an era: that of an eternal Nicolas Sarkozy, favorite political personality of Les Républicains sympathizers. The founder of LR has long flirted with 90% support among his people. Neither the defeats (in 2012 and in the primary in 2016), nor the multiple cases and convictions had so far damaged his political credit in the hard core of his electorate. This time, the divorce seems consummated. If the ex-president has fallen by eight points overall in this barometer, going from 50 to 42% of “good opinions”, he is in free fall with LR voters: minus 17 points! With less than six out of ten right-wing sympathizers supporting him, he is now ahead of most right-wing leaders (Laurent Wauquiez, Xavier Bertrand, Valérie Pécresse) but also Edouard Philippe (the most popular on the right with 80%) and Jean Castex. Nothing is going well for Nicolas Sarkozy.
His popularity is now based on only… macronists: 66% (+1) of walkers have a “good opinion” of the former president who called for a vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round. Saved by the walkers, Nicolas Sarkozy also fell among women (-13), young people (-17), those without diplomas (-32) and workers (-27). So many categories that probably did not appreciate the release of its presidential candidate.
Baroin and Jacob’s warning
With this investigation, Nicolas Sarkozy therefore pays the bill for the presidential election. The “right-wing people” did not understand that the former president does not support Valérie Pécresse. Most of Nicolas Sarkozy’s friends, all embarrassed, recount the anger of members who were sickened by the small sentences knocking out the candidate. “There are countless emails and insulting letters that accompanied the checks sent to Valérie Pécresse to reimburse her campaign,” says a member of the candidate’s team. In retrospect, the Sarkozyists admit that they should have pushed their “champion” to tweet support, as soon as Pécresse won the congress in December 2021, as François Fillon did. The absence of public expression then became the bad soap opera on the right to the point of poisoning the already very complicated campaign of a candidate in distress after her failed meeting at the Zenith.
Upon arrival, Valérie Pécresse had to do without the support of the former president. “Sarko did not help her, but even by supporting her, that would not have changed much”, judge a leader of the right. An opinion far from being shared within the LR. Many believe that if “Sarko” had supported candidate LR in the home stretch – even if it was in minimum service – she would have crossed the 5% mark and avoided claiming 5.5 million euros from activists, c ie the part of personal loan supported by the candidate.
By refusing the check for 2,000 euros sent by Nicolas Sarkozy to the president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse was in any case unanimous… to LR, according to several leaders, including some shock Sarkozyists. A relative of Pécresse recalls in passing that “Valérie” had 5,000 euros at the Sarkothon in 2012. “Pécresse will have less succeeded in getting rid of Sarko,” stings a former minister, who came out dejected and disgusted from the presidential campaign. At the start of winter, François Baroin and Christian Jacob came to see the candidate to warn her: “Be careful Valérie, Sarko has a ‘deal’ with Macron. He will not support you and he has promised to bring him 50 LR deputies. In retrospect, the Chiraco-Sarkozyst duettists were right on the first point. As for the second, Emmanuel Macron waited in vain for the famous 50 LR deputies ready to join him. Instead, the re-elected president had to settle for the rallying of… 4 outgoing LRs. Nicolas Sarkozy will have lost on all counts.