Pensions, “decadence” of France, Macron and Le Pen … what to remember from the interview with Laurent Wauquiez

Laurent Wauquiez has decided to come out of his silence. He does not yet say that he will be a presidential candidate in 2027 but over this long interview granted to the Pointhe is clearly positioning himself as a presidential candidate, ready to take up many challenges.

The strategy of erasure that he had umed and chosen, had raised questions among the Republicans. By confiding in two journalists from the weekly today, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, under pressure, will nevertheless have kept a recent promise from his entourage in Figaro announcing that he would not remain silent for four years. So it’s done. And the regional elected is engaged on several themes, starting with that of pensions.

Faced with this reform, which has not finished making people talk about it, he considers in particular that the right “should not have» if there «oppose even if another reform were possible“. He advocates acompletely new approach“, Believing that the French should be able to retire”when they want» and defends the idea of ​​offering a «greater flexibility on capitalization“. In addition, Laurent Wauquiez would have preferred a right “clearer” on the subject and does not believe that this reform will allow a start of France.

Disintegration and deconstruction

Asked at the same time about the social climate of the country, the president of the region believes that “all Western democracies are struck by the same deep evil, this feeling of disintegration“. “It is the culmination of what I call the ideology of deconstruction“, he adds. “This ideology of the deconstruction of landmarks is shaking our country more than any other“, he continues, before denouncing”a feeling of collapse of our values ​​which leads to a form of sadness”. “See the humiliating way in which the Comoros respond to us on the migration issue and in which the major international powers treat us!“, he points again while saying to himself”convinced“that France can”find hope“.

Macron spared

His judgment on Emmanuel Macron breaks with the severity perceptible at LR. “I am struck that the one whose laurels were braided yesterday is now described as the cause of all evils“says Laurent Wauquiez. He judges, “Of course“that the Head of State has”a share of responsibility» and that he will bequeath «at worst a country exploded into archipelagosbut he adds:However, Emmanuel Macron is not responsible for this decadence. He is responsible for not having been able to correct it“. Macron seems to him to have succeeded in embodying France internationally “. “He gave impetus at European level, he carried an ambition, ideas. It did not put us to shame, unlike its predecessor at times. But the weight of France continued to weaken“, he observes. But a little further, he also believes that this president “was never Jupiter“. “By dint of wanting to decide everything, he no longer decides anything…. This way of driving the country has become archaic“, accuses Laurent Wauquiez, boasting”the spirit of the Fifth Republic“.

“French machine blocked”

But what are Laurent Wauquiez’s solutions? “Get to the root of the problem» and understand that «the French machine is blocked because the pilots have lost the controls“. “France, which was a machine for producing success, finds itself in a situation comparable to the Fourth Republic; the executive is theoretically all-powerful but has become a naked king, a dancing king, but a naked king“. The regional elected official denounces an administrative state “deep“, advocates the”elimination of almost all independent authorities“, and accuses the”supreme courts“to have arrogated”the power to set aside the law“.“AT force to have put counter-powers, there is no more power», adds Laurent Wauquiez who proposes to register a “simple principle” in the constitution: The highest courts, with the exception of the Constitutional Council, cannot set aside the law. When the people have spoken, the law that reflects their will must apply “.

Breathing versus bureaucratic state

For him, the centralized state has become a State of bureaucrats and jurists who produce norms, who take care of everything and therefore nothing“. He calls for decentralization:Let the prefects, the mayors, the local elected officials do it. Let’s give flexibility to the country, let’s give it this breath! Freedom!“. The potential right-wing presidential candidate also judges “dangerous” of “challenge the legitimacy of the vote as the Nupes does” but sees the referendum as a necessary breath to “calm tensions down“. “A people becomes irresponsible when it is despised and when it always rises to the occasion, when it is consulted, by giving it the choice“, he argues.

Marine Le Pen and LR

Asked about his position against Marine Le Pen, he replied: “I don’t think Marine Le Pen is in itself a problem for the French, but I think Marine Le Pen in power is a problem for the French“. As for relations with his own political family and in particular with the president of the Republicans who would have liked him to impose himself more quickly as the embodiment of the LRs, Laurent Wauquiez salutes the “brave workby Eric Ciotti. “The bond that unites us is deep and lasting (…) We share the same desire to prepare the country’s rebound “. He also thinks that the LR family “ must completely reinvent itself“.

Then the ex-president of the LR is questioned on several targeted subjects. For example, what does he think of public services? “Let’s stop pretending that those who work in the public services are privileged, little people who wouldn’t do their job. I mostly saw people who were dedicated but exhausted by administrative rules“. What about national education? He’s ready to go” put money… if, on arrival, the children leave primary school knowing how to read, write and count“.

Mea culpa

On a more personal note, he says:Yes, I have had failures. Yes, I took scars. I learned what the loneliness of failure is. I learned to question myself, and it did me a lot of good“. In his self-criticism, he believes that “ambition is not a bad word“but must not be a”self-centered ambition“. “Presidents who have fulfilled their ego by being elected to the Élysée, we have them on all the shelves of our history. Presidents who have reversed the course of things, it is rarer!“, he judges, before citing Georges Pompidou as a model. “Like De Gaulle, they were clever politicians but he never forgot the ultimate goal: the recovery of the country. It’s my only determination today“, he says, before making his mea culpa. ” I was spokesperson for the government and I let myself be intoxicated for a while by this facility which consists in thinking that by leaving a short sentence, by creating a buzz, one fulfills one’s mission. “. But Laurent Wauquiez also seems to project himself into responsibility when he considers that the French “will want experience, because they have seen the limits of a President of the Republic which he will undoubtedly have failed to learn by climbing the ladder little by little“. His biggest regret? “I have, at times, allowed myself to be damaged, dragged down by mediocre politics, by political confrontation and the game of sound bites“, he concedes.

The death of happy globalization

Laurent Wauquiez believes that our society is at a “major historical turning point”. “We were sold the dream of happy globalization, of the global village without borders, without war, with megalopolises connected to each other, without factories, without worrying about where we produced. This model is dead“, he ures, identifying a “competition between Nations“in which France would have”sacrificed” his “interests” and his “sovereignty“. “We must give back to the country in its depth a future and its dignity“, he argues.

So many confidences which finally, without saying it, install a candidacy for the next presidential election.