By Elizabeth Pineau

PARIS (Reuters – Valerie Pecresse fought a student revolt over university reforms 15 years ago with the same combination of consensus building politics and reformist determination that will take her to the French presidency.

Pecresse, who was elected to run by members of the conservative Les Republicains group last month, has been surveyed and voted for in voter polls. She is expected to defeat President Emmanuel Macron in April’s election. France’s first women head of state would she be if she is successful.

Pecresse, 54 years old, recalled a series of French woes in an office decorated with cinema posters. They included poor fiscal control, city violence, increasing debt, and poor national border controls.

She told Reuters that “We must restore order on our streets as well as in our national accounts.”

Pecresse, who was minister of higher education during Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency and later the budget, said last week that “the powerhose” would be used to cleanse troubled areas in which the state lost its authority and lawlessness had prevailed.

Pecresse criticised Macron for “burning an hole in the State coffers” during the Pandemic. Pecresse promised to reform France’s generous pension system as well as to cut a huge public wage bill. These are both promises that she believes Macron has not kept.

She says her style is “two-thirds Angela Merkel, one-third Margaret Thatcher”.

She said, “I’m a woman who consults decides and acts.” “The one-part Thatcher means to say “I am not for turning,” refers to 1980 speech in which the conservative British leader was unwilling to give up on his liberalizing reforms.

Pecresse highlighted the fact that hundreds of employees were laid off at her headquarters to make room for higher-quality staff, lower spending, and more investment to prove she can get things done. Pecresse was awarded a second mandate in 2020 to lead the Greater Paris Region.

She said that the “blond” opponents who called her that had been punished for their actions. When asked if France is ready to have a female president, she said that voters on the right had shown their willingness and could be reluctant to believe a woman.

‘UNBENDING’

Pecresse’s party, which has its roots to Charles de Gaulle in France, was dominant during the French postwar period. It has been unable to bring together its staunchly conservative and centre-right factions since Macron changed the scene in 2017.

The defection of a senior conservative lawmaker https://www.reuters.com/article/france-election-zemmour-idUKKBN2JJ073 to the campaign bid of far-right polemicist Eric Zemmour on Sunday underscored the challenge she faces keeping a feuding party together.

According to opinion polls, she is in a tight race against Marine Le Pen (leader of the traditional far right) for second place in the run-off vote. Zemmour comes in close second. According to surveys, if she wins, she will be Macron’s most dangerous adversary.

Pecresse was born in Paris’s suburbs and studied at France’s ENA school of politicians and civil servants. She is considered a moderate within a conservative party. Pecresse has been a victim to the right-wing extremists who fuel anti-immigrant sentiments and desire for tougher law enforcement.

Pecresse has toughened her language on immigration and identity, seeking to neutralise the threat from Le Pen and Zemmour, whose promise to “save France” https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/french-far-right-commentator-zemmour-announces-presidential-run-2021-11-30 from Islam has polarised France.

Elle says that she will end French citizens born abroad the right to French citizenship and would increase the severity of sentences for those who have been beaten by police.

Pecresse keeps a photograph that Samuel Paty took of himself, and it is on the table of his office. The photo was taken in 2020 by Samuel Paty (a Chechen-born student in Paris’s suburbs). He had used cartoons of Prophet Mohammad during a lesson about free speech.

Pecresse stated that the portrait of the teacher would be taken with her to the Elysee Palace, if she wins the election.

Pecresse declared, “We need to stand firm on our values.” In the public realm, law prevails over faith. They have equal rights for everyone and share the same duties.