Former Sarkozy minister Eric Woerth (LR) announced that he would support Emmanuel Macron rather than Valérie Pécresse for the presidential election, as you revealed to Europe 1 two weeks ago. Eric Woerth felt that the current president was “best able to defend the interests of France and the French”, in an interview with Parisian published on Wednesday.
“I do not subscribe to the LR discourse”
“It’s not a personal question but I do not subscribe to LR’s speech” which describes a France “nostalgic, curled up on itself”, added Eric Woerth, also chairman of the Finance Commission of the National Assembly. “I note with regret that our political movement is gradually moving away from its fundamental values to camp on sovereignist positions, without many prospects: a France turned towards its past, rather than a France full of desire and courage facing the multiple challenges of the future”, developed Eric Woerth in a letter addressed to his voters in Oise. “It is not enough to adopt Gaullist postures to be Gaullist! A bad diagnosis of the real state of France leads to bad answers”, he believes.
For him, “a second term for Emmanuel Macron would be an opportunity for France, as it would have been for Nicolas Sarkozy”. “Emmanuel Macron is no more left-wing than you and me. The bloc versus bloc debate is no longer relevant… Changing presidents every five years solves nothing and makes everything worse.”
Woerth leaves LR
In the wake of this statement, Christian Jacob asked Woerth to leave LR. “There is a minimum of dignity to have towards those who have always been by his side,” said Christian Jacob, who expressed “a lot of disappointment and regret”. But “we must put things into perspective: Eric Woerth is a parliamentarian at the end of his career” and “his legal affairs undoubtedly weighed in his decision”, he added.
Eric Woerth’s response was quick. “Please note that I am taking leave from our political party to be consistent with my decision to support Emmanuel Macron’s upcoming presidential candidacy,” he wrote to Christian Jacob in a letter. “I am convinced that one way or another, the Republicans will find the path they should never have left,” he concludes.