The post-Macron era has begun. “I will be a candidate in the next presidential election,” Édouard Philippe announced in an interview with Le Point on Tuesday, September 3, saying he was “ready” in the event of an early presidential election. A statement that is not really a surprise for the man who held the post of Prime Minister between 2017 and 2020, at the start of Emmanuel Macron’s first term.
But the timing of this announcement raises questions: for 50 days now, France has not had a Prime Minister. Emmanuel Macron is focusing on the options of Bernard Cazeneuve and Xavier Bertrand, while refusing to appoint Lucie Castets, the New Popular Front candidate, to Matignon to succeed Gabriel Attal.
“The Macronist chaos has no end”
“Fortunately, in the midst of a political crisis, some people are keeping their sense of priorities and the general interest,” says Green senator Mélanie Vogel on X.
“It’s really the right time,” agrees MP Aymeric Caron. “Announcing his candidacy for the presidency in three years at a time when the country is going through a very serious political crisis proves the little interest that Édouard Philippe has for the French people, and the great interest that he has in himself,” mocks the Parisian elected official.
“The Macronist chaos has no end. Édouard Philippe declares his candidacy for the presidential election to take Attal by surprise, himself in a latent war with Macron,” writes Antoine Léaument, LFI deputy. “Do these people remember that politics is not a game? France is a great country, not a casino,” he says.
A position that also seems to be shared on the right. “All this is premature. We need an emergency solution rather than thinking about 2027. It’s too early to talk about it,” Geoffroy Didier, Deputy Secretary General of the Republicans, argues on BFMTV.
As for the National Rally, Laurent Jacobelli wonders. “Why now? Édouard Philippe is talking to us about himself at a time when the French would like us to talk to them a little about themselves,” he says on BFMTV.
A broad coalition
Édouard Philippe, who had asserted himself as a “man of the right” on the steps of Matignon when he succeeded Bernard Cazeneuve in 2017, has been advocating since 2022 a coalition with his former party, the Republicans, a political base that he wishes to see broadened in his conquest of power to a section of the social democrats, once described as the “Mitterandian left”.
In Le Point, when asked about Xavier Bertrand and Bernard Cazeneuve, whose names are circulating to succeed Gabriel Attal, Édouard Philippe explains that he supports “any Prime Minister chosen in a political space that goes from the conservative right to social democracy”.
The mayor of Le Havre took the opportunity to emphasize his favorite themes, such as education, public order, and especially the public finance crisis. The opportunity to address a severe criticism of the management of the outgoing government and its objectives of stabilizing the deficit at 3% in 2027 which “nobody believes in”.
- BFMTV.com
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