FILE PHOTO: Ile-de-France administrative region president Valerie Pecresse arrives for a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, November 11, 2021. Ludovic Marin / Pool via Reuters/File Photo
December 4, 2021
PARIS (Reuters) – Valerie Pecresse, who has described herself as “1/3 Thatcher, 2/3 Merkel”, won the French conservatives ticket for the 2022 presidential election, the party said after a primary election.
Opinion polls have so far shown that the 54-year-old head of Paris Ile-de-France region winning about 11% of the votes at best in next April’s election, giving her little chance of making it to a second-round runoff, let alone win it.
Pecresse beat right-wing Eric Ciotti for Les Republicains’ (LR) ticket in a primary that was a test for the party’s future and whether it would remain anchored in its centre-right tradition or lurch to the right.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas and Sophie Louet; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by David Clarke)
Source: One America News Network
