Valérie Pécresse, the most dangerous opponent for Emmanuel Macron?

For her first big campaign speech, Valérie Pécresse again targeted Emmanuel Macron. The candidate Les Républicains has accused the head of state for months of having “burned the bank”. “There is no question of leaving the future of France in the hands of the immobility” of the president, who “has reformed so little and spent so much”, she again lambasted, Saturday in Paris. In recent days, the Macronists have launched the counteroffensive. “Good candidate for Versailles”, “lady of the defeat”, “crazy” program … The president of the Ile-de-France region, rising sharply in the polls, has she become the outgoing president’s main rival?

“It affects the elderly electorate who were with us”, blows a macronist

Among her LR competitors as in the majority, she has long been portrayed as a centrist, “Macron-compatible” candidate. “It’s Macron as a woman,” quipped a minister recently in Marianne. Since this summer, the former Chiraquienne has taken up the argument to better turn it against the president. “Valérie Pécresse is the most able to recover the right-wing electorate who left for Emmanuel Macron in 2017. She can rally on her rupture program all those who wish to turn the page on macronism. Because the president did not keep his promises of reform and let the deficits slip away, ”points out the LR deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, Eric Pauget.

After her victory in Congress, Valérie Pécresse jumped in polls, capturing part of the liberal electorate, eager for reforms. An Elabe study, published last Tuesday, even wins against the outgoing president in the second round. This first since the start of the quinquennium has had the effect of a small bomb among the macronists. “It affects the elderly electorate, who were with us. The president will therefore have to give pledges during the future campaign, on the issue of pensions or the serious budget, ”summarizes, worried, a framework of The Republic on the move.

“We’re going to have fun showing the differences between her and Macron during the campaign”

To counter the candidate, the arguments in response were quickly sent to the majority. First angle of attack: his message of rallying, while Eric Ciotti achieved a nice score on a very right line. “Behind Valérie Pécresse, we have 40% of New Zemmurs, that’s not nothing. If she wants to be in front of Zemmour, she will have to look to the far right. This big gap will not work ”, pique François Patriat, the boss of the senators LREM. “It is no longer the ‘at the same time’, it is the ‘all at the same time’. Madame Pécresse’s convictions will quickly be shaken by this big, impossible gap, ”says LREM deputy Bruno Bonnell. The candidate has already indicated that she would not take all the measures of her former competitor, such as the creation of a “French Guantanamo” or “national priority” for jobs.

Another element targeted by the macronists, the candidate’s “break” program. “She offered us the Fillon program in 2017. At a time of health crisis, where we saw the importance of public power and of having a strong State, this reduction of 200,000 civil servants is mind-blowing”, writes the MoDem deputy Erwan Balanant. “His only ambition is to be Thatcher, while the whole of France is demanding more public services,” LREM deputy Sacha Houlié continues. Her vision of society, especially the place of women, is reactionary. On immigration, its software is national and therefore backward-looking. We will have fun showing the differences between her and Macron during the campaign ”.

On the side of Valérie Pécresse, we shrug our shoulders, confident. “The macronists are on the ropes, they did not expect her to emerge victorious from the congress,” Eric Pauget suggests. But they understood that she represented a real danger, because she is the only one who can beat Emmanuel Macron in 2022. “