Alexandre Chauveau, edited by Solène Delinger
modified to
3:36 p.m., February 13, 2022
Valérie Pécresse is at the Zénith de Paris this afternoon for the first major meeting of her campaign. The right-wing candidate is playing big, after a week marked by several departures of elected LR at Emmanuel Macron and criticism of Nicolas Sarkozy published in the press.
The last chance meeting? Valérie Pécresse is at the Zénith de Paris this afternoon to relaunch her campaign. The right-wing candidate is playing big, after a week marked by several departures of elected LR at Emmanuel Macron and criticism of Nicolas Sarkozy published in the press.
A new impetus for his campaign
Valérie Pécresse wants to deliver a founding speech for the rest of her campaign. A speech supposed to show his vision of France, and which must breathe new life into a campaign which has stagnated so far. Valérie Pécresse nevertheless multiplies the trips and the proposals but her message struggles to print in the opinion.
Hence the importance of this meeting, an exercise in which the candidate is not the most comfortable, but where she will seek to make an impression…
Arouse desire among voters
She has worked on her speech in recent days with her advisers and her pen, Igor Mitrofanoff. And, if the content has not filtered, several relatives recently encouraged her to reveal herself, to talk about her, and her relationship to France and the French. The objective: to give substance to his speech and arouse desire among voters.
Valérie Pécresse is almost back to the wall, caught up in some polls by Éric Zemmour and faced with defections in his camp this week. But the candidate says she is “serene and combative”. “She knows exactly what she wants to do,” continues a relative.
It will be able to count this afternoon on a full room, nearly 7,000 people and many young people, present to set the mood. At LR, many see this speech as the most important of his life. “Make it or break it,” summarizes a campaign executive.
Pécresse “can’t speak to the whole right”
For Bernard Sananès, pollster and president of Elabe, this major meeting of Valérie Pécresse is essential for his campaign. The Republican candidate is no longer the one who is sure to reach the second round, he believes in the program South Europe. “A figure explains the difficulty of Valérie Pécresse’s equation: she cannot speak to the whole right, nor anywhere else than the right”, sums up the political scientist on Europe 1, who argues that one in two voters who had voted François Fillon would be ready to vote for the president of the Île-de-France region in 2022.