Nicolas Sarkozy estimated on Wednesday that the “only effective bulwark” against Marine Le Pen in 2027 would be a “candidate of the republican right” capable of “federating the right-wing elements who are in Mr. Macron’s majority” and those currently “in opposition”.

“There is one thing that is certain, it is that the only effective bulwark against Marine Le Pen (…) is to have a candidate from the Republican right who is able to federate the right-wing elements who are in the majority of Mr. Macron and the right-wing elements who are in the opposition. Without unity between these two camps, nothing will be possible”, declared Mr. Sarkozy on TF1.

“We will have to create the conditions for this gathering,” added the former president.

Asked about Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, whom he dubs for the presidency in his latest book, Mr. Sarkozy replied: “He is someone I love very much, who has been with me from a great fidelity. I appreciate its modest origins, I appreciate the fact that it is not formatted like so many others by the great schools”.

“Afterwards, will he ever be a candidate? It’s up to him to decide. Will he ever be elected? My God, it’s still so long. Until then, he there are still four years. Let’s try to see with the current President of the Republic what can be done,” he added.

“When you are a government party, you never play the worst policy,” he said to the Republicans (LR).

In 2022, Mr Sarkozy supported the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, not LR candidate Valérie Pécresse.

He also judged Wednesday “unfair and insulting” the “illegitimacy lawsuit” brought according to him to the leader of the National Rally Marine Le Pen.

“A party that presents candidates for elections and that has a caucus of a hundred deputies, how can you say that they are not Republicans? And I don’t like this systematic trial in the extreme right, these lessons moral,” he said.

However, “I am not for Mrs Le Pen because I think she does not have the experience, she does not have the team and she does not have the project. Her economic project is detestable. This is the project of the left thirty years ago. (…) I will never vote for her”.

08/23/2023 21:22:00 –         Paris (AFP) –         © 2023 AFP