LR Congress: for which candidates can the increase in memberships reshuffle the cards? – LCI

The counters panic at Les Républicains. This Wednesday, Christian Jacob congratulated himself on the party having passed the 100,000 member mark. A first for a long time: the movement had fallen to 60,000 members in 2019, after having totaled some “237,000 up to date five years ago”, recalled President LR on Monday at a press conference. The number of inserts has increased considerably since the decision, on September 25, to designate the right-wing presidential candidate in a vote in congress reserved for members only.

So to have the maximum chance of winning, all the competitors are urging their supporters to join. In the camp of Valérie Pécresse, a vast phoning campaign was launched, young volunteers being responsible for calling all the 10,000 sympathizers of her Free movement! by November 16. Bertrand side, “we mobilize the departmental referents, at the end of the meetings, we have forms on the table” and “if we make 10 or 20 memberships, that counts”, explains an elected official to AFP.

The stakes are high for these two candidates who had left the party and no longer had followers. Some see a correlation between the return to the fold of these two regional presidents and the figures in certain federations. “It mobilizes strong in the federations of the candidates”, assures an elected quoted by AFP.

Thus, for the single day of Monday, LR recorded 609 memberships, including 182 in Ile-de-France. Second largest federation, Paris displays “the strongest growth in France” with 1,800 additional members claimed, which some link to the regional presence of the president of Ile-de-France Valérie Pécresse. In Savoie, Michel Barnier’s bastion, the number of members has doubled compared to the 414 at the end of September. In the North, stronghold of Xavier Bertrand, the increase exceeds 20% to more than 2,000 militants. The Alpes-Maritimes, federation chaired by Eric Ciotti, remains the first in France with more than 7,000 members.

Memberships could move the lines of the election, especially if the supporters of Xavier Bertrand and Valérie Pécresse register en masse. If the base of members which was still registered could have blamed them for leaving the party and favoring candidates like Michel Barnier and Eric Ciotti, the new inserts could come with other intentions. They have until November 16 to join and vote in Congress.