Edouard Philippe: “We have not succeeded in providing sufficient answers”
Guest of France Inter, Edouard Philippe, president of the Horizons party, began by talking about the political climate in France, believing that “many people are disconcerted, don’t know which way the country is going, don’t know if its political stability is guaranteed”. The mayor of Le Havre then refused to comment on the comments of the president, Emmanuel Macron, on the risk of“a civil war”while judging that “political leaders, whatever their choice, whatever their orientation, whatever their convictions (…) must first and foremost (…) call for the values of unity.”
Regarding the voting motivations of National Rally voters, the former prime minister spoke of the feeling of “downgrading, the difficulty we have in responding to questions and problems that the French experience in terms of security, in terms of access to public services, in terms of distance from decision-making centers (…) And all this, it must be admitted, we have not succeeded in providing sufficient answers”he added, while assuring that“There are things that have been done that allow us to move in the right direction.”
Asked about his desire for independence, his party not being part of the common label Ensemble of the presidential coalition, Edouard Philippe assured that his “objective is not to restore the presidential majority (…) What I propose (…) it is to reach out to political forces which are not in the presidential majority (…) but who can agree, to make the observation that a certain number of priority measures are good for the country in terms of education , in matters of defense, in matters of justice”.
The president of the Horizons party then refused to say today whether he would withdraw in the event of a triangular second round: “If I answer your question today, then the only thing we will discuss in the last days of the campaign will be the merits or ill-foundedness of this or that position.”
