RT
By Rachel Marsden
Columnist, political strategist and host of an independently produced French-language program that airs on Sputnik France. Her website can be found at rachelmarsden.com
Presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse might compare herself to Angela Merkel and Margaret Thatcher, but the unappealing truth is she is more like Clinton – a figure completely entrenched in the establishment.
The sands are shifting rapidly in the run-up to the French presidential election, set for April 10 and 24 next year. The big question right now is which two candidates will make the run-off round. And then who can then rally the most voters of other parties in that final round. Within this context, a new contender has emerged.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, President Emmanuel Macron seems like a shoe-in, running at 24% support in the latest Opinionway survey. But the next most popular contender now is long-time political fixture and former minister, Valérie Pécresse, of the center-right The Republicans. At 17%, Pécresse is running ahead of harder-right rivals Marine Le Pen of the National Rally party (16%), and Eric Zemmour of the Reconquest movement (12%).
At 54 years old, Pécresse’s political career dates back to the 1990s, when she was an advisor to President Jacques Chirac before being elected to the National Assembly and then appointed Minister of Higher Education and Research during Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency.
Pécresse is arguably the most entrenched establishment candidate currently running for the presidency – and that includes Macron himself. This at a time when citizens worldwide are fed-up with the mess that the globalist establishment elites have created.
Not being completely tone-deaf, Pécresse understands that the current appetite is for greater national independence. To even emerge as the candidate for her own party, she had to defeat hard-right National Assemblyman, Eric Ciotti. And now, to make it to the second round of presidential voting, Pécresse will have to beat two candidates markedly further right than she is. Beyond that, if she wants to win the presidency and topple Macron, she will then need to be preferred over Macron by those two candidates’ voters.
