French conservatives’ first female candidate
spells trouble for Macron
Valérie Pécresse targets center-right voters that
Macron has poached from her party.
BY CLEA
CAULCUTT
December 4,
2021 7:18 pm
PARIS –
Valérie Pécresse has just been chosen as her party’s first female presidential
candidate, now she faces an even bigger challenge: gearing up to beat Emmanuel
Macron in April’s election.
The former
minister and current head of the Paris region won the primary of the
center-right Les Républicains party with 61 percent of the vote Saturday,
beating hardliner Eric Ciotti.
Pécresse’s
victory is bad news for Macron.
The
pro-business moderate who held two ministerial posts under former President
Nicolas Sarkozy, hunts on many of the same grounds as the incumbent. She offers
a modern brand of conservatism that is liberal on economics, but tough on law
and order.
Pécresse
however joins a crowded cast of candidates on the right and with the first
rally of her conservative party cancelled due to a resurgence of COVID-19, she
will have to work hard to gain momentum.
“I’ve got
good news,” she told a gathering of conservative supporters, “the Republican
right is back, the right [that stands up for] its beliefs is back and France
cannot wait any longer.”
Pécresse,
54, pledged to give “her all, her force and her determination” to lead the
party to victory.
The EU’s
former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and Xavier Bertrand, head of the
Hauts-de-France region and once seen as a favorite in the race, both lost in
the first round of voting.
With
immigration and security top issues ahead of the election, party insiders hope
the strong showing of Ciotti may also retain voters who might desert the party
for the far right.
Currently,
opinion polls suggest Pécresse would get 10 percent of the vote in the
presidential election compared to 24 percent for Macron, 19 percent for Marine
Le Pen and 14 percent for the far-right provocateur Eric Zemmour, according to
POLITICO’s poll of polls.
Challenging
Macron
On
Saturday, Pécresse laid into Macron as a politician lacking conviction.
“Between
the incumbent and myself, there is more than a difference of political line,
there is a difference of character,” she said. “He has only one ambition, to
please, whereas I have only one passion, to get things done.”
Despite
being a career politician, Pécresse also has the advantage of being a fresh
face in the race at a time when mistrust of politicians remains high in the
wake of the Yellow Jackets protests during Macron’s mandate.
Pécresse
has described herself as “one-third Thatcher, two-thirds Merkel.” She has
pledged to rise the retirement age to 65 and cut thousands of public-sector
jobs if she is elected president. She has also – like most candidates on the
right – become more hardline on immigration, reflecting the influence of the far
right on mainstream parties. She promises to “restore French pride” and defend
“family values.”
As head of
the regional government in Île-de-France, which includes Paris, she can claim
first-hand executive experience, running a tight budget and confronting social
problems in impoverished Parisian suburbs. She served as budget minister and
higher-education minister under Sarkozy.
Facing the
far right
Pécresse
faced an immediate attack from Le Pen, who described her as the “most
Macron-like candidate” in the Républicains’ primary.
“She has
exactly the same profile as Macron and agrees with him on so many issues,” said
Le Pen on French TV channel BFMTV. “I’m sad for [conservative] voters … but
they can always join my campaign, where they will find an unashamed defense of
the nation.”
With the
defeat of the Ciotti, hawkish voters might be inclined to leave the for Le Pen
who has refashioned her National Rally party as more mainstream in recent
years.
But within
Les Républicains, some think Ciotti – who obtained 39 percent of the run-off
vote – has been strengthened. They hope he will play a strong role in the
campaign.
“Ciotti can
block Zemmour and Le Pen on rightist issues, whereas [Pécresse] has a rhetoric
that appeals to business leaders and high earners, a conservative base that has
been taken by Macron,” said an adviser to party leader Christian Jacob in
POLITICO’s Paris Playbook on Friday.
“This
result would be the best outcome for Pécresse, because Ciotti will be able to
shore up the right wing of the party,” said the advisor before the results were
unveiled.
Pécresse
barely has time to celebrate before she faces her first challenge. On Sunday,
Zemmour is holding his first rally after he announced his candidacy earlier
this week. The former journalist has mounted scathing attacks on career
politicians and it’s unlikely he will spare her at a gathering that was timed
to overshadow the primary of the conservative party.
In a letter
released on social media on Saturday, Zemmour appealed to voters who had backed
Ciotti to join his movement and drop “indecisive politicians (…) who have given
up or turned their coats in recent decades.”
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