Policy. “Outstretched hand” and “initiative”: Philippe calls for a rally, Retailleau will not go

On the right and in the center, the “gathering” is a fight: Édouard Philippe said “reach out” to the other parties by offering them a meeting around All Saints’ Day to prepare for the presidential and legislative elections. The former Prime Minister brought together in Paris on Tuesday, for the first time, a “political committee” made up of the close guard of his Horizons party, but also supporters from Renaissance or the right. A new stage in his campaign accompanied by a warning to the competition: “without a rally, there will be no victory for anyone”.

Leading in the polls, but competing in the center by Gabriel Attal and on the right by Bruno Retailleau, the mayor of Le Havre explained that he wanted to “reach out” via an “initiative”: he will write to the leaders of parties and currents of the right and the center to suggest that they form a committee, with a first meeting planned for early November. A meeting “to discuss what we are able to converge on”. The initiative is aimed at an arc going from the MoDem of François Bayrou to the liberal New Energy party of David Lisnard, specified the secretary general of Horizons, Christophe Béchu.

For Retailleau, “this election will not be won at the center”

Immediate refusal from LR, Bruno Retailleau not agreeing to attend this “meeting for Macronists between Macronists”. “This election will not be won at the center. It will not be won by trying to prolong the Macron experience,” insisted on CNEWS the senator from Vendée, who does not intend to “stop the race” for the Elysée. “November is an eternity away,” Horizons argued, counting on growing pressure from the electorate in favor of a union candidacy and on relays within LR, after the senatorial elections of September 27.

“For months, I have been warning about the dispersion that can lead to losses. So it’s good, Édouard Philippe realizes it,” quipped David Lisnard on BFMTV, pleading once again for the organization of a primary which the Horizons candidate refuses. Gabriel Attal’s team did not react immediately.

For Édouard Philippe, “none of the political groups in the right and center space today will win on their own” and “cannot, on their own, obtain a majority in the legislative elections which would follow the presidential election”. “We must therefore think about the campaign and think about what comes next,” insisted the Horizons candidate, who had already explained on August 30 during Gérald Darmanin’s return to politics that he wanted to “recompose political life” by bringing together the right and the center, evoking a “new party” or a “confederation”, reminiscent of the UMP of 2002.

Support from Darmanin

Gérald Darmanin, who gave him his support, was present Tuesday evening in Paris at the “political committee” of the Philippe candidacy, as were several Renaissance ministers: government spokesperson Maud Bregeon, Benjamin Haddad and Matthieu Lefevre. Also participating in this meeting were the former head of government Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the former ministers Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, François de Rugy and Eric Woerth, the European deputy (Renaissance) Grégory Allione, the senator Thani Mohamed Soilihi (Renaissance), the mayor of Charleville-Mézières Boris Ravignon (various right) and the vice-president of the Ile-de-France region Yan Wehrling (Positive ecology).

While, in the Macronist bloc, Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal have both mentioned a rallying in favor of the best placed, this proposal for a new committee is superimposed on the “liaison committee” desired by the Renaissance candidate and which has met several times since the spring. This circle, which includes a representative of Renaissance (Franck Riester), Horizons (Christophe Béchu), MoDem (Marc Fesneau), UDI (Hervé Marseille) and the Radical Party (Nathalie Delattre), is due to meet again on Wednesday in a Parisian restaurant.

But without a LR representative, “this liaison committee does not cover the entire space of the right and the center,” observed Christophe Béchu, who will take over the management of Horizons, Edouard Philippe having left the presidency to devote himself to his campaign.