The editorial. The right in disarray

The Republicans also no longer know where they live. Forced to take responsibility for getting the country out of the impasse and preventing the appointment of a left-wing Prime Minister after the dissolution of the National Assembly, they once again find themselves at a crossroads before the announced fall of the government on September 8. The party is returning to a war of leaders it believed was over and to irreconcilable strategies for the post-Bayrou period and especially the pre-presidential election.

Yesterday's clash between Laurent Wauquiez, the leader of the LR deputies, and Bruno Retailleau, the Minister of the Interior and president of LR, over the course of the future government is symptomatic of the tensions that have plagued the right since the disaster of the 2022 presidential election and the legislative elections that followed. The rise of the National Rally is forcing Les Républicains into constant contortions to ensure their political survival.

Laurent Wauquiez intends for his party to censor "neither a Socialist Party government nor an RN government" to avoid "catastrophic instability" for the country, which is not to the liking of Bruno Retailleau, who refuses to sign a "blank check" for a possible Socialist government. It is understandable that the two men are working for the future: the first is working towards an alliance of the right, while the second, whose days are numbered at Place Beauvau, dreams of being the gravedigger of Macronism.

The right is more than ever gripped by doubt. The prevarications of centrist François Bayrou, the specter of a dissolution that would benefit the National Rally, and the prospect of an expansion of the governing coalition to include the Socialist Party are not helping matters. With three days to go before the confidence vote at the Palais Bourbon, the Republicans are looking for ways to escape asphyxiation, given the number of bitter pills to swallow.