The head of the senators Les Républicains (LR) Bruno Retailleau, as expected, announced this Friday his candidacy at the head of the party, emphasizing in The Figaro its “ability to federate” along a “popular and patriotic” line.
“I will be a candidate for the Republican presidency” because, in the absence of Laurent Wauquiez, “many have asked me to present myself”, affirms the senator from Vendée whose candidacy seemed imminent for a few days.
“With the activists I want to build this great right-wing, popular and patriotic party, which France lacks today,” he adds.
“Candidate Against Nobody”
Claiming to have “always sought to get together”, he specifies that he is not “a candidate against anyone”, in particular neither Éric Ciotti nor Aurélien Pradié who have “all the legitimacy to present themselves”. All three will participate in the LR youth campus this weekend in Angers.
But “this election should not become a head-to-head between two camps that would play against each other” because “in our weak state, a head-on collision could break us,” he warns.
“The capacity of a leader is not measured only by his authority, but also by his ability to federate”, adds Bruno Retailleau, who has garnered support in recent days: Gérard Larcher, François-Xavier Bellamy and Othman Nasrou (both who have resigned as a candidate), and even Senator Stéphane Le Rudulier, but former spokesman for Eric Ciotti during the primaries.
It will keep the head of the group in the Senate in case of victory
In his lines of thought, he evokes a “complete change” of the educational system and advocates “more security, less taxes and immigration” with a referendum on this last point “so that the French claim this existential issue.”
Bruno Retailleau suggests that he will keep the head of the group in the Senate if he is elected president of LR on December 3, a combination “not only compatible but desirable” while “Parliament returns to the center of public debate”: it is, according to him, ” a guarantee of coherence and clarity”.
If he considers it “common sense” not to carry out “systematic obstruction”, he assures him: “we will never be macronistas”. And “I will always reach out to the voters of Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour because I will never resign myself to the fact that the sincerely right-wing French have left us,” he adds.
His election would not automatically mean a presidential candidacy, assures Bruno Retailleau: “I am a candidate to rebuild my party, not to preside over the country.”
Source: BFM TV
