The conservative presidential candidate tries to come back in the polls, internal criticism and defections in her party
The conservative candidate Valeria Pécresse promised her compatriots this Sunday a France “of order and harmony” if she is elected president in April, after a five-year term of Emmanuel Macron marked, according to her, by disorder and division. “It is time to reconcile the French. It is time to write a new page », she stated two months after being elected to represent The Republicans, the heir party of Charles de Gaulle, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.
Pécresse thus tried to relaunch his electoral campaign, after a black week marked by weak polls, desertions in his party and internal criticism. Former Conservative Minister Éric Woerth, former Secretary of State Nora Berra and Natacha Bouchart, Mayor of Calais, have announced they will vote for Macron in the first round. Former conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, a major figure on the French right, has not yet publicly endorsed his candidacy and has privately criticized his campaign, according to the press.
The candidate, who likes to compare herself to former Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, tried to break her image of a methodical, cold and uncharismatic woman this Sunday with her speech, without success. Guillaume Peltier, former number two of the Republicans, criticized “the insincerity” of her speech which, according to him, “sounded false and hollow.” Peltier recently signed for the campaign of far-right Éric Zemmour.
The president of Île de France presents herself as the only one capable of defeating Macron at the polls, although, in reality, she is third in the polls with a 15% vote intention. She is fighting with the ultra-rightists Marine Le Pen (17.5%) and Zemmour (14.5%) for a seat in the second round of the presidential elections. Only the two most voted candidates are classified. And, for now, the only one who seems to have a guaranteed job is Macron, with a 25.5% vote intention in the first round.
Pécresse attacked, without naming them, Le Pen and Zemmour. “Extremists lie to you. Reject the poison of nostalgia. Do not let anger and fear prevail,” said the conservative candidate, who promised a referendum on immigration, security and secularism and presented herself as the great defender of the family.
In foreign policy, the conservative candidate wants “a sovereign France, a balanced power, listened to and respected. The France that has said ‘no’ to the war in Iraq, that has pushed back Russian tanks in Georgia. She promised that if Putin attacks Ukraine there will be “drastic sanctions”.
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