Gabriel Attal, only candidate in the running, officially elected secretary general of Renaissance

Former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was officially elected secretary general of Renaissance, by the national council of the party founded by Emmanuel Macron, meeting on Sunday December 8 in Paris. Elected with 94.9% of the votes, Mr. Attal was the only one in the running, after the withdrawal of Elisabeth Borne's candidacy.

He succeeds Stéphane Séjourné, who was elected in 2022 during the transformation of La République en Marche into Renaissance and was recently appointed European Commissioner. Mr. Attal will combine this function with that of president of the Macronist group in the National Assembly, Ensemble pour la République (EPR), to which he was elected in July.

M^me Borne, for her part, was elected president of the party's national council, a position for which she was also the only candidate. M^me Borne explained that he wanted to work to ensure that this body plays “fully the role of Renaissance parliament”. She announced a “working method”with the establishment of commissions “like those of Parliament”tasked with members to define the “priority themes” of the work of the national council.

Emmanuel Macron and the little-discussed political crisis

The two former prime ministers finally made a joint list and agreed on the distribution of tendencies within the executive office, the party government, which will be installed “in a few weeks”. “We will never be a party like the others”, “an association of political rentiers hungry for power and devoid of values”launched Gabriel Attal at the end of the national council.

Having distanced himself from Emmanuel Macron after the dissolution of the Assembly with which he was not associated and which abruptly ended his lease in Matignon, Mr. Attal completes his takeover of the Macronist activist apparatus , after having already been elected to the presidency of the group of deputies in July, despite the wishes of the Élysée. The task is formidable as the party seems weakened after seven years in power, and while within the central bloc, Edouard Philippe (Horizons) has already announced his candidacy for the Élysée.

There was relatively little discussion of Emmanuel Macron during this meeting of some 300 to 400 executives of the party he founded in 2016. No more than the political crisis, when the head of state must appoint a first minister in the coming days after the fall of the Barnier government. Asked by the press on this subject, Mr. Attal did not wish to respond. The end of the Macron era at Renaissance? “If I’m here, it’s thanks to him. » “I know what I owe him, I know what I owe you”said Mr. Attal to ovations.

“We will always be free”

More “I will always be free, we will always be free”declared the elected representative of Hauts-de-Seine, determined to relaunch this party by means of a vast work program for the start of 2025. He thus intends to engage “the largest mobilization since the great march” from 2016 and “launch states general”. It is up to local committees and their members to spread the word of activism, including by reaching out to former “walkers”. “We will meet together by March for a big gathering” which will be used to “return the verdict of our activists, set new directions, assert strong lines and clear values”.

While Renaissance (formerly En Marche! then La République en Marche) dominated the National Assembly from 2017 to 2022, and had up to 400,000 members thanks to free registrations, the President of the Republic's party has been in power since 2022. difficulty, a situation made worse by the dissolution. The EPR group has 93 members and related members in the Assembly.

The party's National Council also adopted two thematic motions, one on sexist and sexual violence presented by former minister Aurore Bergé, the other carried by the president of Youth with Macron, Ambroise Méjean, reaffirming the party's attachment to “moralization of political life”. Mr. Méjean notably said he regretted that leaders “including within [sa] political family » criticized the requisitions, particularly the risk of immediately enforceable ineligibility, against Marine Le Pen in the trial of parliamentary assistants (National Rally) in the European Parliament. These remarks were aimed without naming Gérald Darmanin, absent from this national council which was however attended by Bruno Le Maire or even Richard Ferrand.