Elementary right: to Lagarde “activists UDI does not wish to participate” – Les Echos

The UDI is met in congress this Sunday at Versailles. The 23,000 members of the centrist party are invited to decide on participation or not of their training at the primary from the right. This election “initiated by the Republicans,” as does the question posed to members since Tuesday, fanning the divisions within the party but above all represents a pebble into the workings of the alliance between the right and center.

Failing agreement with the leadership Republicans, Jean-Christophe Lagarde, president of the UDI, calls for one week its militants to oppose participation in the primary right. For him, the outcome of this election is also a foregone conclusion. “I do not doubt that the militant UDI wish not to participate in the primary,” he said Sunday on France Info.

Major issue

The president of UDI argues against participation because he was unable to win an agreement on the parliamentary elections of 2017 in which he requested “a quarter to a third party” investiture. “It was not possible to talk with Republicans about how we could build this majority,” said Jean-Christophe Lagarde. “When you do not prepare a majority, the bazaar as is the case today, and France is not governed. “For the IDU party elected, these elections represent a major challenge to the very existence of the political movement.

In the agreement hoped for obtaining UDI, was particularly be the assertion of “independence” between the two parties. Way of saying that the UDI can not be running behind a party of Nicolas Sarkozy. Jean-Christophe Lagarde also demands “the refusal of alliance with the FN.”

Support Bayrou

Very reassembled, Jean-Christophe Lagarde has even been threatening to support François Bayrou in case it would appear presidential. “If Sarkozy wins the primary, Bayrou will. The question will arise of support, although many of our friends did not forget his call to vote Hollande in 2012, “he launched the microphone of France Info. Another blow pressure to clinch a deal with the right-wing party, without which the UDI will struggle to exist.

The centrist president also left the door open to “discussion” at the end of primary from the right. “We’ll see at the end of primary Republicans if a discussion is possible, if not, we will assume”

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