Slight wriggling among some, this Tuesday, April 9 evening. The Republicans have arranged to meet activists (700 registered) and elected officials for a new stage of the states general organized by the party. After the theme of ecology, the right this time wants to talk about economics. And this, at the Bridge, a strange place, half-cavern, half-nightclub, located under the Alexandre III bridge, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Slight wriggling, therefore, while we arrange the last cuts. “You saw, we took half a point,” jokes, a bit ironically, a manager. The latest Ifop-Fiducial poll for Le Figaro, LCI and Sud Radio gives François-Xavier Bellamy at 8%, compared to 7.5 on Monday. There is no small victory. “But the jurisprudence of 2019 says that there is no great victory either,” whispers the right.

Slight quivering because, in the middle of the European campaign, LR finally believes it has broken through the sound barrier on the theme of the drift in public finances. It’s at least an opportunity to “give a little oxygen”, breathes Othman Nasrou, campaign director, who observes a “small dynamic”. “I am never optimistic because I am very cautious. But we see an opening and we are consolidating a serious campaign. » Nasrou thus hopes that the right-wing voters who have “lost their way” with Emmanuel Macron “will come home, to us, the only party of budgetary seriousness”.

There is a delay (one hour), and some guests are getting impatient. Meanwhile, the different faces of the party parade. Very particular subjects flourish. Including the motion of censure, a threat brandished by the tenors of LR for several weeks. We think out loud. When should it be filed? Before or after the Europeans? “That’s the whole question…”, one slips into Bellamy’s entourage. “Eric Ciotti would like it to be before the Europeans, he thinks it can breathe new life into the campaign,” says one of his close friends. So what’s wrong? Some LR tenors, and not the least, fear dissolution. “Eric Ciotti thinks the question will arise anyway. Our deputies are in place,” says a relative.

The crowd is teeming, the places are soon all occupied. The boss of the right arrived, the light of the cameras in his eyes. Not far from there, the president of young LR, Guilhem Carayon, talks numbers. “We can make 10% by taking voters from Emmanuel Macron. There are 3 or 4 points to look for on the theme of good management but also, insecurity. » The objective, affirms the one who aims for an eligible place on the LR list, “is to be the 3rd man in the election”, after Jordan Bardella (RN) and Valérie Hayer (Renaissance). And in passing, to “bury the Zemmourists”, believing that Reconquest “doesn’t work”.

Music sounds, large screens light up, projectors illuminate the stage. “What is the true record of the Mozart of finance? “, a voice spits gravely. “A France on the path to Greece, this is the outcome of Macronism”. Here again, here is the adversary named. The “economy night”, organized by the MEP and coordinator of the Estates General, Geoffroy Didier, begins. Among the elected officials, we see the parliamentarians Annie Genevard, Véronique Louwagie, Philippe Juvin, the head of the LR deputies, Olivier Marleix, and his counterpart in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau. And among the guests who speak, business leaders like Pierre Danon. “It’s incredible to have Parliament pass a budget based on disingenuous assumptions. » Or again, the economist Nicolas Baverez; Éric Trappier, present as president of the Union of Metallurgical Industries and Trades but also, CEO of Dassault* aviation.

The evening concluded with a speech by the boss of the right, Éric Ciotti. “In two months, to the day, the French will vote. » Drawing up a black picture of France’s economic situation (debt 3100 billion, trade balance deficit of 100 billion, insufficient growth and excess spending), President LR believes that “on all the main indicators of our economic and financial health, the government is multiplying its failures” and deplores a “financial debacle” and a “fiscal lynching.” “We need a budgetary golden rule, which must be enshrined in the Constitution,” he judges. Way, Ciotti specifies, to sanction the insincerity of the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance by their “dismissal”. President LR also targeted what could well motivate the filing of a motion of censure: “For Emmanuel Macron, the solution is taxes. (…) We will not accept it. » “We are proposing a radically different path: more efforts from the State and more freedom for the French.”

State reform by fighting against “bureaucratic excesses”, fewer standards and rationalization of state administrative staff, “we assume the need for a reform of the civil service”, he continues, estimating that ‘fewer but better paid’ civil servants are needed. Reform of the AME, reduction of spending on immigration… Éric Ciotti also targeted a “social model that has become obese” which must be “reduced”. “We want French people freed from bureaucracy, standards, Cerfa, taxes,” he insisted. Reindustrialization, economic recovery, a “less naive” Europe… “Let us be the country of start, the country of hope,” launched Éric Ciotti.

*The Dassault group owns Le Figaro.