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"It's amazing": Retailleau discovers who Wauquiez really is

"It's amazing": Retailleau discovers who Wauquiez really is
Spicy indiscretions, crude clumsiness or sweet confessions: every day, find the briefs that examine the political world.
Bruno Retailleau and Laurent Wauquiez, in Paris, in July 2024. (Denis Allard/Libération)

Excerpt from Chez Pol, our political newsletter reserved for our subscribers : discover it for free.

There are ten days left before the end of this tough internal LR campaign. So it's almost time to vote and take stock, calmly. Because such a human adventure™ inevitably comes with its share of lessons about oneself, one's loved ones, one's opponents, and man in general. Bruno Retailleau, for his part, is already at this stage regarding Laurent Wauquiez. And inevitably, it's not brilliant. In private, and according to l'Express , the Minister of the Interior calls the leader of the LR deputies a "genius at making enemies" and adds, as sharp as ever: "I've learned so much about him in just a few months. It's astounding." Discoveries made at 65, thirteen of which were spent at the UMP and then at LR. As it turns out, it's never too late to learn.

Rachida Dati confirmed it this Wednesday, May 7, on France Inter: having renewed her membership in LR, the Minister of Culture will indeed vote for the election to the presidency of the right-wing party. "So, so what?" she pretends to wonder when asked. And then the question arises as to who will get her ballot. Laurent Wauquiez, who has been doing everything lately to obtain the support of the mayor of Paris's 7th arrondissement, so important since the capital's LR federation is the largest in France? Or his government colleague Bruno Retailleau? Caught between her personal and partisan interests and the government solidarity to which she is bound, Dati contorts herself to avoid answering the question: "It's an internal vote. You know my friendship with Wauquiez goes back a long way; he has always supported me, and I have always gotten along very well with Retailleau." We've come a long way. Faced with the journalists' insistence at the end of the interview, the aspiring mayor of Paris looks at the studio clock: "How much time is left? You said earlier that you were in a hurry, that there were a lot of topics... Next!" And we won't get the answer. Dati therefore does not officially support Wauquiez, who finds himself poorly rewarded for his activism in favor of the law reforming the municipal elections in Paris, Lyon and Marseille , which he presents as the best way to finally ensure the victory of Anne Hidalgo's sworn enemy.

We've already told you about Wauquiez's excesses here. For the past few days, the bullshitter, a graduate of the ENA (National School of Administration) has been repeating over and over again that he wants parliamentarians to be able to "override the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Council" and "write into the Constitution that a judge can no longer overturn a subsequent law based on an international treaty. " That's as much as tearing up the Constitution and marking the end of the rule of law, right? Not at all, Wauquiez reassured on CNews this Wednesday morning, arguing that the current system "is not the rule of law." "It's a deviation in which the left-wing ideology is trying to impose its vision on the country and prevent us from acting," continued the leader of the fifth political group in the Assembly. "The rule of law was that of General de Gaulle. In France, there is only one supreme judge, he said, and that is the people." Apart from the fact that this quote was recently taken up by Le Pen & Co to denounce the ineligibility of the far-right boss, let us note that it is completely truncated and that Wauquiez, like Retailleau who also uses it, or the RN, make him say anything. On France Inter in October , Patrick Cohen had already raised this hare. During a press conference in October 1948, ten years before the establishment of the Fifth Republic, the General had declared: "I believe that in France, the best supreme court is the people, and that when there is a divergence between the executive and the legislative branch, or when the legislative power is unable to achieve a majority [...], the best arbiter is then the people. [...] And I am convinced that one of the weaknesses of the Third Republic [...] is that the right of dissolution did not exist." De Gaulle therefore advocated dissolution, not legal nonsense.

It's not easy being the spokesperson for a government led by Bayrou, known for his chaotic side and not burdened by an official communications director to orchestrate all of this. The current voice of the government is paying the price. Former LR senator Sophie Primas confided in her former comrades at the Luxembourg Palace, as reported by the Canard enchaîné . "It's terrible. At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the day before the Council of Ministers, I'm never notified of anything," she said indignantly, before venting her anger: "I wasn't briefed. There were no meetings or calls beforehand, and I find out about the next day's topics very late. Bayrou doesn't tell me anything, even though I have to prepare to comment on the government's decisions and certain perspectives..." It's no wonder she's floundering in the semolina. Because Primas does not benefit, unlike most of his predecessors, from a well-defined working framework with the Prime Minister. L'Opinion already reported that to prepare this weekly report of the Council of Ministers, "his meeting with Bayrou takes place between Monday and Wednesday mornings" and lasts "less than an hour." When there is a meeting at all.

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