In his novel In the shadowspublished in 2011, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, helped by his advisor Gilles Boyer, recounted a thrilling presidential campaign in 2025, seen from the right-wing camp.
France Télévisions is now offering an adaptation, updating it in particular with the impact of social networks on a campaign. The six episodes of this thriller co-written and directed by filmmaker Pierre Schoeller will be online on the france.TV website on Wednesday, before their broadcast on France 2 from October 30.
In this race for the Elysée under high tension, Paul Francoeur, played by Melvil Poupaud, wins the nomination of his party against Marie-France Trémeau, despite being the favorite, played by Karin Viard. But the machine stops when Francoeur’s closest advisor, César (Swann Arlaud), receives an anonymous phone call informing him of the rigging of this primary.
But the calendars clash: the former Prime Minister, at the head of the Horizons party, declared himself a candidate in the next presidential election, scheduled for 2027, at the beginning of September. France Télévisions had approached the authors in 2016… before Matignon only monopolized them from 2017 to 2020. The project could only resume afterwards, when Edouard Philippe once again became mayor of Le Havre.
The two men got into the game of the series and, from luxury consultants, moved on to real co-writers, even being – very occasionally – present on set.
“We found a modus vivendi“, describes the project manager Pierre Schoeller. His creation is rhythmic and polished – “the equivalent of three feature films in three-four years”, he calculates.
The series delves into the heart of a campaign team, which must fend off blows, betrayals and unforeseen events. But there’s no point looking for who’s who, warns Gilles Boyer, current MEP.
“It wasn’t a roman à clef, it’s not a series“, insisted to France Culture the former campaign director of Alain Juppé for the 2016 right-wing primary, then special advisor to Edouard Philippe when he was head of government. And to launch: “We would like us to accept that we write fiction“.
However, Gilles Boyer knows well the central figure of César the apparatchik, the candidate’s second brain. He is always calm, sometimes cynical, a real “warrior who serves a master”as he defines himself in the series. At his side, Paul Francoeur (Melvil Poupaud) is a charismatic candidate, combining “charm and ambiguity” according to the actor. His particularity is to be in a wheelchair, after an accident – a character constructed in particular by studying the former German minister Wolfgang Schäuble, in a wheelchair after an attack.
As for his internal opponent Marie-France Trémeau (Karine Viard), she displays her firmness and tries to overtake him from the right. Pierre Schoeller had in mind “a strong female figure like Christine Lagarde“. More “I thought she could be in the style of Rachida Dati“, current Minister of Culture, “who asserts her femininity in a form of aggression“, declared Karin Viard to 7 Days TV.
The filmmaker Pierre Schoeller had already plowed the political furrow with The exercise of the State on the life of a ministerial cabinet (three Césars in 2012 including one for Michel Blanc). His driving force for his first series was to tell “a test of loyalty“, while the poison of doubt creeps into the candidate’s entourage. What does this series say about power? “It is the will of a man who has a fierce conviction within him. But he can’t go alone“, argues the director, for whom “political power is human“.
