Presidential election 2022: nine candidates in the footsteps of General de Gaulle – archyde

They all wanted to be there. Tuesday, November 9, many national political figures flocked to Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises (Haute-Marne), to honor the memory of Charles de Gaulle on the occasion of the fifty-first anniversary of his death. From the top of the state to the opposition of right and left, everyone wanted to have their image in this Mecca of Gaullism five months before the first round of the presidential ballot.

A claimed “social Gaullist”, Jean Castex laid a wreath on the tomb of General de Gaulle before participating in a ceremony in front of the Cross of Lorraine, symbol of the Resistance, in the middle of the morning. “Everyone, somewhere, is a little Gaullist, after that you have to embody it in your daily behavior”, declared the Prime Minister on the spot.

He was notably accompanied by Anne Hidalgo, candidate invested by the Socialist Party for the presidential election and accustomed to commemorations as mayor of Paris, one of the five cities made companions of the Liberation Charles de Gaulle. “I am a Gaullist of June 18”, said M^me Hidalgo. In front of the press, she praised the “Immense courage”, the “Vision” of the general who “Made impressive decisions” to wear “Honor” from France.

Family photo for Les Républicains

On the right, the five presidential candidates, flanked by many executives of the leadership of the Republicans (LR) party, found themselves under the bright sun of this November afternoon. Arrived first, Valérie Pécresse, the president of the Ile-de-France region, preceded Xavier Bertrand, the boss of Hauts-de-France, the former European commissioner Michel Barnier but also the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes Eric Ciotti and the mayor of Garenne-Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine), Philippe Juvin.

Christian Jacob, leader of the party, was also present, accompanied by Damien Abad, president of the LR group in the National Assembly. For the right, the objective was twofold. Four weeks before the December 4 congress during which the LR candidate will be chosen and the day after first debate between the suitors, a family photo symbolizing unity was organized. Objective: to show that the 2022 vintage will have nothing to do with that of 2017, torn by divisions and tensions.

For LR in general and for each of the candidates in particular, it is also a question of showing a direct connection with a tutelary figure of the nation in order to gain legitimacy with the French. But also to claim a political heritage. In private, each one goes there besides of his anecdote and his personal bond with the general or the Resistance. Eric Ciotti thus evokes, sometimes, his grandfather prisoner of war and his uncle resistant in the maquis of Corrèze. Michel Barnier recalls, for his part, that he was an activist within the Youth Union for Progress, a movement of young Gaullists. To recite nobody else but them.

Marine Le Pen more “Gaullian than Gaullist”

In another historic place, Marine Le Pen paid tribute to the “Liberator of France” in Courseulles-sur-Mer (Calvados) – the leader of Free France landed there in June 1944 -, then in Bayeux, where General de Gaulle, in his famous speech of June 16, 1946, laid the institutional foundations of the V^e Republic. The candidate of the National Rally (RN), whose party has long opposed de Gaulle and was founded both by former resistance fighters, former collaborators, and former Waffen-SS, remains in disagreement with the Algerian policy of the former President of the Republic and admits today more “Gaullian than Gaullist”.

The candidate for the Elysee gave a less historic speech in front of the stele of General de Gaulle in Bayeux, under the whistles and fog horns of twenty demonstrators, in particular from the CGT. “We have real legitimacy in talking about De Gaulle, then insisted Marine Le Pen to the press. Which political movement is closest to De Gaulle’s founding ideas, sovereignty, economic patriotism, independence, the end of NATO’s integrated command? I have no problem being here today. I don’t speak words. In the acts, the RN is in the line. “

The sovereignist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, present each year in Colombey, for his part mocked this memorial scramble, observing that “The day before the presidential election, everyone comes. The following year, I’m all alone ”. The founder of the Les Patriotes movement, Floriant Philippot, was also present to complete this list of eight candidates who came to pay tribute to the founder of the V^e Republic.

Hidalgo came to “put history in its place”

In addition to the desire to follow in the footsteps of General de Gaulle, the objective on Tuesday, on the right and on the left, was to distance the almost far-right candidate Eric Zemmour, who continues to claim the legacy of the general . M^me Hidalgo thus understood, by his coming “Put history in its place”, according to his entourage, by condemning the words of the polemicist, always in pre-campaign, according to which “Pétain saved the French Jews”. “When I hear people who legitimize Pétain’s action by saying that he saved Jews, they cannot call themselves a Gaullist”, also underlined Valérie Pécresse on her arrival in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises.

Despite rumors announcing his declaration of candidacy on the occasion of this symbolic date, Eric Zemmour did not come. “Today, thinking that I was going to announce my candidacy, the entire political class disguises itself as General de Gaulle, and Macron is re-declaring war on Covid-19. I suggest you laugh at it: that’s what the General would have done ”, he wrote on Twitter.