Primary, not primary ? By announcing, in the heart of summer, in Corsica Morning that he was preparing for the presidential election, but refused to bow to any selection process for upstream – “My primary, this will be the regional elections of the Hauts-de-France”,–, Xavier Bertrand has re-ignited the debate already explosive within the French right.
at the End of July, Gérard Larcher, the president of the Senate, had already summarized the stakes on RMC and BFM TV : “It is of course a major topic for this fall. It will require a method of resolving, regardless of the name, it’s called primary, or something else. “An opinion shared by Bruno Retailleau, the president of the LR group within the upper house, attempted to present themselves. But also Valérie Pécresse, who, as Xavier Bertrand, the left LR to fly of its own wings. “Today, precise to the Point, the president of the region Île-de-France, the leadership of the right for the presidential election is not decided. He will have to do it one day, and especially rally behind the choice expressed. The right way puzzle, this is the assured failure. The open primary is the way to choose and to decide for the millions of French who share our values. “
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About undermined. As to the current direction of the majority party of the right, the case is far from unanimous. “Everyone is skeptical on the primary, tells us the number two Republican, Guillaume Peltier, because it symbolizes the defeat of 2017, and constitutes only a fraction of the electoral body even though the presidential election is the meeting between a man, a project, and the people. “It is true that the previous does not plead much in favour of the transaction : to the right as to the left, the two candidates selected by primary elections, Francois Fillon, and Benoît Hamon, have not passed the bar in the first round.
” we need to turn the page of the primary. It is a tool obsolete it is necessary to get rid of, a machine to lose and to shrink the right “, assured bluntly Aurélien Pradié, the secretary-general LR at the end of July in The Sunday Newspaper. The chairman of the party, Christian Jacob, who wishes the nomination of François Baroin – it will make a decision in October, has never hidden his hostility to this system. “Today, loose a responsible LR, the only primary worth, this is the précampagne presidential : it is important to know that in August 2021 to the right will be a dynamic…”
The spectrum of duels fratricidal
And there is a plethora of candidates ? The right will expose it to the spectrum of duels fratricidal that have marked the presidential previous : Pompidou vs Poher (1969), Giscard/Chaban-Delmas (1974), Giscard/Chirac (1981), Chirac/Barre (1988), Chirac/Balladur (1995) ? “If you remove the primary, you do not delete the mechanism of candidate selection, you move it, note Dominique Reynié, professor at Sciences Po and director general of the Foundation for political innovation (think tank fondapol). It is the weak point of the demonstration of Xavier Bertrand. “
The primary, underlines the political scientist, is “an idea deeply rooted to the right” as the first to have had the idea, it’s… Charles Pasqua, after the failure of Chirac in the presidential election of 1988. He lays it on the tray of the political show The moment of truth on January 9, 1989 on Antenne 2 : “we need to find a system that allows voters to choose the candidate they wish to see represent all the sensibilities which constitute a pole of one side and a pole of the other. I should add that my formula could also prove profitable for the socialists. I believe that here also there will be the too-full and not empty. “
An idea which is supported Edouard Balladur in November 1994. And for good reason : it is to kill in the egg the candidacy of Jacques Chirac, announced a few days earlier. “The primary, the original,” says Dominique Reynié, respond to the will of overflowing by the people of the party bureaucracy. This is to prevent the domination of the party leadership on the choice of the candidate. Contrary to what seems to think Xavier Bertrand, this system does not represent the quintessence of the form partisan, but, on the contrary, to challenge it. The problem is that in 2016, the primaries have not been imagined by an innovative organization, who wished to inaugurate a new cycle of life, but by a party dying person who was looking for a way to survive. “
“The primary,” continues Dominique Reynié, give the applicant the authorization of the voters : it is powerful. Without primer, the first round of the presidential election is going to arbitrate between candidates without a political machine and inevitably disperse the votes of the centre-right and the right. It is risky. “Obsolete, really ?
