Presidential 2022: at the Republicans, a first courteous debate without a winner – archyde

They had sworn there would be no invective. The mood, they said, had changed since the 2016 primary, where murderous phrases had been plentiful. Vaccinated, the Republicans (LR) party had, it was explained, learned from its mistakes. Promise kept Monday evening November 8, during the first debate of the right-wing contenders for the candidacy for the presidential election of 2022.

No more aligned desks which had seen Alain Juppé, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Fillon clash, the LCI platform looked like a living room on Monday with round chairs. The candidates, facing each other, spoke on their proposals, making sure to answer each other without interrupting. At the risk of making the exercise monotonous.

It is that neither the president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, nor the boss of Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand, nor the former European commissioner Michel Barnier, and even less the deputy of the Alpes Maritimes Eric Ciotti and the mayor of La Garenne-Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine) Philippe Juvin had no interest in shooting first. Their political family, eager to show a face of unity and appeasement after years of divisions, would not have forgiven them. Members dedicated to distinguishing them during a vote on December 4 could also have taken offense.

A slight dissonance on wind turbines

Only Valérie Pécresse has been, at times, a little more pugnacious, for example pointing out to Eric Ciotti that his proposal for a single rate of income tax would cause the State to lose revenue. Or when she challenged Xavier Bertrand on his proposal to give a “Work premium”, which it does not consider effective enough to increase wages. Later, she will reproach Michel Barnier for not quantifying his proposals. No bickering between them therefore, but a little more lively exchanges with the journalists present on the set, David Pujadas and Ruth Elkrief having called them to order on several occasions on their speaking time or their digressions.

After a short start devoted to the first trip and to the first measurement of each if he was elected president, the debate opened on economic questions, with fairly technical discussions. Aware of the growing importance of purchasing power, they first competed for proposals to increase wages. The rest of the evening was a succession of proposals almost all going in the same direction, without anyone really succeeding in standing out.

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