Representatives of the Les Républicains party, Bruno Retailleau, Laurent Wauquiez and Annie Genevard (from left to right), received at the Elysée by Emmanuel Macron during his consultations for the appointment of a new prime minister, in Paris, on August 23, 2024. JULIEN MUGUET FOR “LE MONDE”
With the appointment of Michel Barnier as Prime Minister on Thursday, September 5, the Les Républicains (LR) party revisits in its own way the phrase of Jesus in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew: “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Fifth political force at the end of the last legislative elections, the right came first at Matignon, despite only 47 deputies. The left is screaming about democratic robbery, the LR appreciates this unexpected return to Rue de Varennes. “This is good news for France and for the right, assures the Loire MP Antoine Vermorel-Marques. For us, it is an opportunity to show that we can once again occupy a political space, twelve years after leaving Matignon.”
In 2012, the 31-year-old elected official was barely old enough to vote and had not yet met his future political mentor: Michel Barnier. Antoine Vermorel-Marques was one of the first to congratulate him in person. On the right, people were quick to pick up the phone on Thursday to heap praise on the new prime minister or publish an enthusiastic message about X. “He is a man of great quality who has all the assets to succeed in this difficult mission entrusted to him”writes the leader of the Republican Right (DR) deputies, Laurent Wauquiez.
Without court or enemy
The same comment addressed to Xavier Bertrand – the favourite for Matignon the day before – would have seemed more forced, given how much the two men cultivate a mutual aversion. None of that with a 73-year-old Barnier, a wise man with no supporters or enemies around him on the right – and this regardless of the changes in the party’s name and acronym (UDR, RPR, UMP and LR). Laurent Wauquiez is all the more easily in line with the idea of seeing Michel Barnier occupy Matignon, since he had finally accepted a possible nomination of Xavier Bertrand on Tuesday, during a telephone conversation with the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron.
Also initially reluctant to the Xavier Bertrand option, Bruno Retailleau, leader of the LR senators, had also ended up validating this option. He even spoke on Tuesday evening with the president of Hauts-de-France to examine the “legislative pact” imagined by the parliamentary right in the wake of the legislative elections. This series of proposals was supposed to dress up the “no” opposed in advance to any alliance of the right with the presidential camp with a constructive attitude.
At the time, Olivier Marleix surprised everyone when this avowed anti-Macronist asked “President Macron to appoint a prime minister from the Republicans”. Among the few other LR elected officials to plead in this direction was the senator for Paris, Marie-Claire Carrère-Gée: “Only the LR can now claim Matignon and constitute the pivot of a larger majority”assured the former campaign manager of… Michel Barnier, during the 2021 primaries.
You have 46.83% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
