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Laurent Wauquiez: The hardliner leading France's Republicans further Right
After a career that began following centrist politician Jacques Barrot, Laurent Wauquiez has headed more and more towards the right. Now, elected president of the Republicans, he will have to reach past his base to establish an effective opposition.
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In 2011 came the first glimpse of a “truly right” Wauquiez. While still minister for European Affairs, he defined welfare dependency as a “cancer on French society”, and advocated the introduction of mandatory work for the beneficiaries of income support. In 2013, he opposed the introduction of gay marriage, then in 2014 he appeared as a Eurocritic in the book “Europe, everything must change”, in which he called for European protectionism. Former mentor Barrot publicly disavowed the book, deeming it to be “inspired by today’s brand of populism”. Ex-President Jacques Chirac wrote in the French daily Les Échos “Here there are all the ingredients to send us back to the last century, with a protectionism that has shown its limits by stoking the fear of the other”. In regional elections in 2015, “Immigration, that’s enough” and “Brussels, that’s enough” were both slogans that adorned his campaign leaflets.
During the last stages of his campaign for the Republican Party presidency, placed between two photos alongside François Fillon and Nicolas Sarkozy, Wauquiez declared: “Immigration must be reduced to a strict minimum.” The remark was decidedly too right wing for the Union of Democrats and Independents, who, even before the results were declared, had already distanced themselves from him.
From a figure who at one stage propounded centrist values, to those now “clearly on the right”, the evolution of Wauquiez’s political position is no stranger to the reservations of both those who oppose him and even those on his own side. Now, elected head of his party, he will have five years to prepare himself to ready his ambitions and potentially prepare for a new challenge: the 2022 presidential elections and Emmanuel Macron.
http://www.france24.com/en/20171211-laurent-wauquiez-center-margins
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In 2011 came the first glimpse of a “truly right” Wauquiez. While still minister for European Affairs, he defined welfare dependency as a “cancer on French society”, and advocated the introduction of mandatory work for the beneficiaries of income support. In 2013, he opposed the introduction of gay marriage, then in 2014 he appeared as a Eurocritic in the book “Europe, everything must change”, in which he called for European protectionism. Former mentor Barrot publicly disavowed the book, deeming it to be “inspired by today’s brand of populism”. Ex-President Jacques Chirac wrote in the French daily Les Échos “Here there are all the ingredients to send us back to the last century, with a protectionism that has shown its limits by stoking the fear of the other”. In regional elections in 2015, “Immigration, that’s enough” and “Brussels, that’s enough” were both slogans that adorned his campaign leaflets.
During the last stages of his campaign for the Republican Party presidency, placed between two photos alongside François Fillon and Nicolas Sarkozy, Wauquiez declared: “Immigration must be reduced to a strict minimum.” The remark was decidedly too right wing for the Union of Democrats and Independents, who, even before the results were declared, had already distanced themselves from him.
From a figure who at one stage propounded centrist values, to those now “clearly on the right”, the evolution of Wauquiez’s political position is no stranger to the reservations of both those who oppose him and even those on his own side. Now, elected head of his party, he will have five years to prepare himself to ready his ambitions and potentially prepare for a new challenge: the 2022 presidential elections and Emmanuel Macron.
http://www.france24.com/en/20171211-laurent-wauquiez-center-margins
French opposition elects hard-right leaning leader
Wauquiez has run a hawkish leadership campaign, running on an anti-immigration and anti-welfare programme, and has worried some party heavyweights with his possible “porosity” to far-right Front National ideas. He refused to call on LR supporters to back Emmanuel Macron against the FN’s leader, Marine Le Pen, in the second round of the presidential vote in May.
There were two other, largely unknown, candidates but members gave Wauquiez, 42, a clear victory, making a second-round vote unnecessary.
Wauquiez is expected to consolidate his victory by appointing a youthful shadow cabinet to challenge Macron and raise the party from what he described as the ruins of its presidential catastrophe.
His hard-right line does not, however, have unanimous support. Franck Riester, a former LR member of parliament, has left the party, accusing Wauquiez of playing into the FN’s hands. “By running after the Front National, we will end up by giving the far right power,” Riester said recently.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/10/france-opposition-set-to-lurch-toward-far-right-by-electing-new-leader
Wauquiez has run a hawkish leadership campaign, running on an anti-immigration and anti-welfare programme, and has worried some party heavyweights with his possible “porosity” to far-right Front National ideas. He refused to call on LR supporters to back Emmanuel Macron against the FN’s leader, Marine Le Pen, in the second round of the presidential vote in May.
There were two other, largely unknown, candidates but members gave Wauquiez, 42, a clear victory, making a second-round vote unnecessary.
Wauquiez is expected to consolidate his victory by appointing a youthful shadow cabinet to challenge Macron and raise the party from what he described as the ruins of its presidential catastrophe.
His hard-right line does not, however, have unanimous support. Franck Riester, a former LR member of parliament, has left the party, accusing Wauquiez of playing into the FN’s hands. “By running after the Front National, we will end up by giving the far right power,” Riester said recently.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/10/france-opposition-set-to-lurch-toward-far-right-by-electing-new-leader
Leading French Conservative Quits Party After Right Winger Wins Leadership
Right-wing heavyweight Xavier Bertrand quit France's main conservative party, The Republicans, on Monday, highlighting the challenges its new chief will face in trying to keep the party together.
The move comes a day after party members overwhelmingly elected Laurent Wauquiez as a their new boss, following a campaign during which he said President Emmanuel Macron was too weak on security and immigration.
"I don't recognize my political family, so I decided to leave it," Bertrand, a former health minister and current head of Hauts-de-France, a region in northern France, said on France 2 TV station.
Bertrand's move underlines growing concern among moderate members of The Republicans about the party's direction, after a disastrous presidential campaign that saw its candidate eliminated in the first round.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-12-11/leading-french-conservative-quits-party-after-right-winger-wins-leadership
Right-wing heavyweight Xavier Bertrand quit France's main conservative party, The Republicans, on Monday, highlighting the challenges its new chief will face in trying to keep the party together.
The move comes a day after party members overwhelmingly elected Laurent Wauquiez as a their new boss, following a campaign during which he said President Emmanuel Macron was too weak on security and immigration.
"I don't recognize my political family, so I decided to leave it," Bertrand, a former health minister and current head of Hauts-de-France, a region in northern France, said on France 2 TV station.
Bertrand's move underlines growing concern among moderate members of The Republicans about the party's direction, after a disastrous presidential campaign that saw its candidate eliminated in the first round.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-12-11/leading-french-conservative-quits-party-after-right-winger-wins-leadership
He cites Donald Trump as an "inspiration".
