Rachida Dati and Nicolas Sarkozy – CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP
- Rachida Dati was in a meeting in the Gaveau hall in Paris five days before the first round.
- The candidate Les Républicains received the support of Nicolas Sarkozy.
- Since the start of the campaign, Rachida Dati has claimed parentage with the former President of the Republic.
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“Dear Nicolas … What pride and happiness to have you by our side”. A few words, the Gaveau room exults. Christian Jacob resumes under cheers. “You who have given us so much!” Who gave so much to France and allowed Rachida to reveal herself and be what she is today! ” The Republican boss continues, but right-wing activists are just waiting for one thing: the arrival of Nicolas
Sarkozy.
The former president is in the 8th arrondissement this Monday evening to support Rachida Dati, the LR candidate in the capital, a few days before the first round of
municipal. When the two arrive on stage, the same one where the former head of state had celebrated
his victory on May 6, 2007, the cheers redouble. “My dear friends, you can imagine my emotion to come back here. Dear Rachida, we have practiced this room so many times … “The hair is grayer today, the voice less powerful, but very quickly, the political animal reappears.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s (very short) show
“I wanted to be here because it is an important political moment […] Rachida, he’s someone loyal, it’s fair to give her back what she gave me. Because in politics, to say that someone is faithful, wow … it’s a huge thing, it’s an extremely rare disease. ” Nicolas Sarkozy has fun with the room then briefly traces the journey of his protege, from his position as advisor to the Minister of the Interior in 2002, to his appointment as Keeper of the Seals in 2007.
“I have always been able to count on her, and today you can count on me. […] It gives me great pleasure to see this success and this dynamic. It gives me pleasure for you, for France and for the Republican right, “said the former president. At his side, Rachida Dati listens timidly, head down. He continues: “There is something that I like about her, she is so courageous”, recalling the lack of strength of some, on the right, at the start of the campaign. “I prefer that they are few in number at the start and huge on arrival than the opposite. She has an inexhaustible energy. And that’s your Sarkozy side. ” The intervention of the retired politician lasted only a handful of minutes, but it galvanized the crowd.
Dati plays it like Sarkozy
In the process, Rachida Dati unfolds her program around her triptych: safety, cleanliness, family. She also torpedoed, with her usual ease, her main competitors, Anne Hidalgo and Agnès Buzyn. “She is campaigning on the fundamentals of the right, but it is above all the subjects of concern of the inhabitants, tackle Agnès Evren, LR candidate in the 15th arrondissement. Because on safety or cleanliness, Ms. Hidalgo shies away. “
His supporters praise his multiple displacements on the ground, in working-class neighborhoods in particular, and his promise of firmness against drug dealers and insecurity. Ground, attacks,
and controversial outings, a “Sarkozyst” campaign model. “There are many similarities. They are both “warriors”. Rachida is a fighter like Nicolas Sarkozy. And like him, she is unambiguous about her proposals, ”insists Agnès Evren. In the room, the activists are convinced of the parallel. “Some say that Dati is the female Sarkozy, I think it’s fair,” smiles Monique. She is fishing and was not afraid to go to difficult places. “
“Sarkozy’s presence is good for the morale of the right,” says Jean-Pierre Lecoq. But the mayor of the 6th arrondissement is already thinking about it. “It remains very popular in the electorate, and could attract people who are starting to return from macronism.” Because despite his good momentum in the polls, Rachida Dati will have to rally more widely in the second round if she wants to win. The right puts for that on his grigri, Sarkozy, and his victorious campaign recipes. Tonight, she also pretends to forget that the former president may have failed, twice in 2012 and 2016, with these same recipes.
