Another blow for Valérie Pécresse and Les Républicains. After the defection of Éric Woerth to join the macronist camp, the LR mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart announced that she would support the head of state in the presidential election, according to Le Figaro. She will officially announce it on Friday from Calais, during a press conference at 11:30 a.m., specifies Europe 1.
“I want Emmanuel Macron to be re-elected. I believe he has the greatest potential to win the next presidential election. I also voted for him in the second round of the presidential election in 2017 ”, she delivers in an interview with Figaro. “It is not a choice once morest Valérie Pécresse but a choice of responsibility in the interest of my territory”.
The elected official, mayor since 2008 of the port city and close to Nicolas Sarkozy, affirmed to take this decision in “the general interest of Calaisiens”, ensuring that he wanted to “continue to work with this government” because “there must be no break in Calais”. According to her, the current government has always been present on the migration issue in Calais. “We had the reinforcements we requested in September. The dismantling continues to be carried out, ”she listed.
This rallying is a new stone in the garden of Ms. Pécresse, who on Wednesday suffered the defection of the deputy and former minister Eric Woerth, and of the former minister of Jacques Chirac Catherine Vautrin, before a big meeting on Sunday in Paris. It is “the degree 0 of politics”, was indignant the deputy LR Eric Diard, mocking “the convictions, the spine” of Mrs. Bouchart, who goes “with Macron” because she “thinks that he is the favourite”.
“I want to be clear with the activists”
“Making a decision is not shooting at an ambulance. I know that I will disappoint some people but I want to be clear with the activists, ”explained Ms. Bouchart. The city councilor, however, said she hoped not to be excluded from her party, of which she recalls being “a member since 1979″. “I have no intention of joining the Republic on the march,” she insisted.
This support “is great news”, rejoiced on Twitter Mr. Darmanin, stressing that Ms. Bouchart “saw daily the difficult but energetic work of the President of the Republic to help Calais and the Hauts-de-France region. “.
The RN MEP and adviser to Marine Le Pen Philippe Olivier for his part assured that it was “as much a clarification as the mark of the political recomposition in progress”. “LR does not wait for the first round to crack”, he underlines once more.
jmt/cbn