The succession is making waves. In the third constituency of Hérault, outgoing LREM MP Coralie Dubost is not standing. Mainly at issue? Its human management of certain collaborators and the expensive use of its advances of mandate expenses, pinned at the end of April by Médiapart. To replace her, the authorities of the majority have invested Laurence Cristol, candidate, and Arnaud Moynier as a substitute. While the appointment of Coralie Dubost had achieved consensus five years ago, the new duo chosen and validated by Jean Castex, is making waves among the local supporters of the president.
Apart from ideological positions, Laurence Cristol is the mayor of Saint-Clément-de-Rivière, a small town north of Montpellier which is not in this famous third district in which the city councilor presents himself. An approach that does not encourage an easing of local tensions. Another reason on which the walkers cringe a little: the political career of Laurence Cristol. First fillonist, then on the Wauquiez line within the Republicans, when the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region was at the head of the right-wing party.
In addition, she was already a LR candidate in the fourth constituency in 2017 against the representative of LREM, and elected… under the PS label to the Hérault departmental council, in June 2021. “She did not at all majority values. She made the Manif for all. She is against PMA. She is on a very firm right, not from the center in any case ”, mocks a macronist from Hérault. “As a substitute, she could also have taken a walker to mobilize the troops… On the contrary, she takes a guy who almost voted for Le Pen in the second round,” he adds, gratingly.
His deputy, Arnaud Moynier, was a dissident LR candidate in the last legislative elections. A presence on the starting line that led to his exclusion from the right-wing party. Five years later, this mayor of the town of Beaulieu sponsored the candidacy of Nicolas Dupont-Aignan for the presidential election. “They want to pass me off as a support for Debout la France. Nothing less”, had justified Arnaud Moynier at the Midi Libre, last week. And to add: “I brought my sponsorship to Nicolas Dupont-Aignan at the same time when others, national leaders of the presidential majority such as François Bayrou in particular, were campaigning to allow certain candidates in need of signatures to be able to appear in the competition at the Élysée”.
Despite this defense, the elected official would, according to local sources, receive Nicolas Dupont-Aignan in the town hall of Beaulieu in September 2021, in the company of a few elected officials. Before bringing the sovereignist leader to his family winery and offering him wine. A personal visit denied by the former DLF candidate, who explains to Figaro “just passed by the town hall”. And who analyzes the sponsorship of Arnaud Moynier “at the last moment” as a pledge in favor of “democracy”.
“I wanted a basic walker. Someone from the seraglio, from the presidential camp. Laurence Cristol is a member of nothing,” mocks another local executive of the majority. Which laments that the third constituency is nevertheless “the most winnable territory compared to Macron’s scores in the presidential election” and that the presidential camp “made the worst choice”. A vision that would be shared by Coralie Dubost herself, very discreet for the moment on the battle that is being played out in her camp. According to a walker who will not campaign for the new pair, “people coming from the left will not vote for Laurence Cristol, for whom the constituency will be difficult to win in a very solitary context”.
