“Loyal but free”, this is the formula with which Edouard Philippe defined his relationship with Emmanuel Macron since his departure from Matignon in 2020. By announcing in an interview with the weekly Le Point that he would be a candidate in the next presidential election, “he is now more and more free”, confides Louis Vogel, senator Les Indépendants of Seine-et-Marne, and head of the ideas pole of the Horizons party.
“It’s not a surprise at all,” adds Emmanuel Capus, a member of the party’s political bureau and senator for Maine-et-Loire. “Édouard Philippe said he was preparing, he has now clearly said he would go, he will be a candidate, period,” supports this unconditional support. For Claude Malhuret, president of the senatorial group Independents – Republic and Territories, “it was an open secret and no one doubted that he would go, it’s not an announcement but a confirmation.”
The right time?
If few people doubted his decision, it is the timing of this announcement that can raise questions. In the midst of waiting for a new Prime Minister, the former tenant of Matignon thought that it was the right time. “There is such a level of confusion and stagnation at the moment that clarity brings him”, supports Emmanuel Capus. His colleague Louis Vogel believes that Édouard Philippe “speaks little, but loudly. And with a speech that is always coherent, a line from which he does not deviate”. Before adding that “yes, it is the right time, because the French need reference points, recourse, clear people who show a path”. Same tone for Claude Malhuret who thinks that “it is precisely in a period of trouble that we need a clear direction, and a person who takes a step back”.
“Massive solutions”
“He also says that there is a replacement,” adds Louis Vogel. “But not in the footsteps of Emmanuel Macron, nor with the same solutions.” “What I will propose will be massive,” declared Édouard Philippe in his interview with Le Point. But behind this sibylline phrase, his party is working. Head of the Ideas division, Louis Vogel takes up the four priority issues: “Education, ecology, security and the restoration of public finances.” “But not with half-measures or cuts,” he explains, evoking “massive solutions, profound changes.”
“When we announce our candidacy, it is also a signal sent to those who could join us,” explains Claude Malhuret. The party, which claims 25,000 members, is currently relying mainly on its network of local elected officials. “But yes, to go to the presidential election you need troops, and this announcement of candidacy is also there to convince,” explains the senator from Allier.
But by declaring himself three years before the next presidential election, Édouard Philippe also attracts criticism. On the Macronist side, the head of the RDPI senators François Patriat believes, on LCI, that “to show individualism or to talk about an upcoming election when today the news, the urgency, is to find stability to face the peril that this country is experiencing, […] It doesn’t seem appropriate to me today.”
“The end of Macronism”
In his former political family on the right, Bruno Retailleau, leader of the LR senators, wonders: “Is 2027 the current concern of the French? I think it is not in the timing.” he replied on BFMTV. But for him, beyond this candidacy, it is also a page that is closing: “It clearly marks the end of Macronism, it is a race of small horses that is being launched in the camp of the President of the Republic” Bruno Retailleau further analyzes.
For his socialist counterpart Patrick Kanner, if Édouard Philippe is declaring himself now, it is because “he made a strategic mistake by not getting back into the ring in the legislative elections. They all did: Le Pen, Wauquiez, Hollande, Attal, Borne. The only feathered leader who didn’t get back into the ring is Édouard Philippe. He realizes today that he is being marginalized.” Which is, according to the leader of the socialist group in the Senate, “a completely offbeat, exotic, baroque initiative. At the same time, he is anticipating an early presidential election that is sought by many people, including Marine Le Pen.”
A scenario of an early presidential election that is officially dismissed by those close to Édouard Philippe. But off the record, some say that “in this period, everything is now possible, and that there was therefore an interest in speaking first” to prepare for any eventuality.
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