Amazingly harmonious: Barnier, Ciotti, Bertrand, Pécresse and Juvin (from left), the candidates for the Republican presidential candidacy
Image: AFP
In France the right-wing Republicans want to finally appoint the president again. Now only one candidate is missing who can take on Emmanuel Macron.
Kcan Republicans still be president? Sure, says former Brexit chief mediator Michel Barnier and describes how he would govern next May. “We need trust,” says the 70-year-old Gaullist. He believes that he radiates it and stands for a team-minded style of government in which “the president presides and the government rules”. That alone corresponds to the institutions of the constitution drafted by de Gaulle.
His calm manner does not go down well everywhere. Barnier argued with the persuasiveness of “a sleeping pill,” wrote Le Journal de Dimanche, and Valeurs actuelles found that he lacked energy. The Financial Times, on the other hand, identified Barnier as the favorite of the pre-election campaign, even if no polls corroborate this thesis. Barnier is primarily concerned with embodying a counterpart to the young, impatient president. The “lonely, arrogant and sometimes contemptuous style” of Emmanuel Macron is responsible for his failure, he explains. That goes down well with the LR members, for whom Barnier has been touring the country for weeks.
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