600,000 euros for “communication advice”. This is what Valérie Pécresse paid for her communication budget during the presidential election according to the National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Funding. As a reminder, it is she who is in charge of controlling the expenses of candidates and the institution published this Tuesday, July 19 the total costs of the 12 contenders for the Élysée. We therefore learn that the Republican candidate was the second biggest spender in general behind Emmanuel Macron with a total budget of 14.3 million euros. An investment which was not profitable since it did not even exceed 5% with 4.78% of the votes cast and was obliged to appeal to the solidarity of the French to reimburse its campaign expenses, despite its great personal fortune.
The expense item entitled “communication advice” is therefore one of the most important of Valérie Pécresse’s campaign costs, with nearly 600,000 euros spent. As Capital reveals, that’s more than all of the other 12 candidates combined. Éric Zemmour devoted 360,000 euros to it, ahead of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen who “were satisfied with moderate recourse to consultants”, with respective bills of 199,000 and 163,000 euros. We find behind and in descending order Emmanuel Macron (148,000 euros), Yannick Jadot (59,000), Fabien Roussel (53,000 euros), Anne Hidalgo (38,000 euros) and Jean Lassalle (22,000 euros)
It must be said that the communication of the Republican candidate was much mocked throughout the presidential campaign. We remember in particular the failed meeting of Valérie Pécresse at the Zénith de Paris on Sunday February 13. Crushed on social networks, with the same hashtag
Valérie Pécresse on RTL.
“There are better speakers than me, but to do something, I’m the best,” she tried to justify herself in the media at the time. “If the objective is to have a speaker, then I think there is better than me. If the goal is to have a maker, then I’m the best candidate,” said Valérie Pécresse on RTL. “We are losing the battle of communication”, had even lamented with Le Figaro last March a part of the campaign of Valérie Pécresse
According to AFP, Valérie Pécresse had however received the advice of an actor from the series Plus belle la vie to achieve greater ease during her public speeches. According to information relayed by our colleagues from Le Monde on February 17, 2022, it is indeed Benoît Solès who would have helped the candidate “to tame the teleprompters-mirrors during a few sessions at the Michel Theater”. In addition to his passage in Plus belle la vie, the actor had obtained the Molière for best actor and best author in 2019 for the play entitled La Machine de Turing. Despite her huge expenses, Valérie Pécresse ultimately failed to convince voters. She still managed to repay a total debt of 5.1 million euros which she paid on May 30.
