Vote loser? Pécresse's regress leaves Républicains facing oblivion

The rightwing presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse has promised to rewrite the French constitution in order to fight crime and illegal immigration, as she tried to boost a flagging campaign that risks her party imploding if she fails to reach the final round this month.

- Angelique Chrisafis

“I want to show that I’m ready to govern,” Pécresse said in Paris last week, vowing to “restore order to the streets and to the public accounts”. Soon afterwards, Pécresse’s team said she had Covid and would be stepping back from public appearances for a few days.

Polls have showed Pécresse sinking into a damaging fifth position. The mood is palpably tense in Les Républicains, the traditional rightwing party of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, which could break apart amid ideological infighting if Pécresse does not make it to the second round final on 24 April.

An Ipsos poll for France Info and Le Parisien this week placed Pécresse on 10% in the 10 April first round, well behind the centrist president Emmanuel Macron, on 2 7.5%, and the far-right Marine Le Pen, on 18.5%, who are predicted to make the final, though support for the socialist Jean-Luc Mélenchon seemed to be rising last weekend.