What if the Republicans (LR) supported the same candidate for the presidential election of 2027 with macronists? On the right, this reflection has long been issued with a resigned air. She recounted the erasure of a party, caught up between the central block and the national rally. Those who risked themselves in this thesis? Indecrotable pessimistic, convinced of the death judgment of their training after so many electoral debacles.
At low noise, this taboo gets up. An increasing number of LR elected officials joins this idea, launched by Michel Barnier in Matignon. In November, the former Prime Minister suggested a unique candidacy of the “common base” to block Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon. This arithmetic imperative is repeated ad nauseam by the Union defenders. The central block could not afford the luxury of the division to access the second round of the presidential election. “We have no choice but to extend the common base in 2027,” said a LR minister this fall, with a touch of fatalism.
After all, this little world has governed together for five months. And the municipal elections of 2026 should give rise to LR-Macronie alliances in several cities. “A reconfiguration from below,” notes a minister.
The alliance’s thesis, however, takes on a new shade on the right. To the principle of reality is added a long forgotten feeling: hope. The emergence of Bruno Retailleau, combined with the LR electoral revival in the by -elections, awakens an ambition. What if the right posed a major ideological imprint on this joint candidacy?
“Take the lead”
The most ambitious – dreamers? – take place to imagine that the heir of the UMP is the locomotive of the rally. Like this LR hierarch, prompts to see his party “take the lead” on the basis of the rebound of the right in partial legislative elections. Not obvious, as the heir of the UMP is not at the barium in the common base. Bruno Retailleau’s conservatism hardly pleases historical macronists. Laurent Wauquiez’s offensive Against the “coup d’etat organized by supreme courses”, either. The ascent of one of the two men could bring down some macronist puders, but the walk seems high.
Other elected officials wish at least to strengthen the right anchoring of the common base. In the absence of a LR candidate, as much to hold the pencil of the program. Thus, Valérie Pécresse pleads in private for a gathering of “UMP ancients”, for the sake of ideological coherence. Without making the label a prerequisite. If Edouard Philippe Righting his speech on security and immigration, why refrain from following him? A macronist frame, trendy left wing, smiles: “The common offer, we like it when it is yours. There, it becomes objectively theirs. Being a minority and decision -makers: it is rare in capitalism, but it can arrive in politics. ” The right -handed moult of the central block, combined with the evolution of its electoral sociology, prepares the ground for a rapprochement. Bruno Retailleau wonders in private on the political consequences of the current coalition, while advocating “ruptures” in sovereign and economic matters.
“The French need work -study”
The question summarizes the dilemma posed to the Republicans. Can the right promote a “break” and associate with the former presidential majority? The symbolic burden of such a partnership would be heavy. Thus, MEP François-Xavier Bellamy cannot imagine himself behind Edouard Philippe in 2027. “The French need alternation, he judges. If we are the macronism continued by other means, this is not possible. ” Around Laurent Wauquiez, the myth of the compulsory rally is deconstructing. “Le Pen risks being ineligible. Mélenchon does not seem to bring together 23 % in the first round. There is room for two campaigns”, judges a close close to the deputy of Haute-Loire.
And then, the central block remains composite. It brings together elected officials with various sensitivities, sometimes very far from the LR corpus. The proof by Roland Lescure. The hypothesis of a Matignon appointment of the deputy EPR – hardly in line with the sovereign positions of the right – had caused a shield raising in December. A fight of influence has existed since 2017 between the fringes of macronism since 2017. On his outcome depends the capacity of the common base to unite in 2027. He does not doubt it. In 2024, the president of the Senate Gérard Larcher slipped to the deputy Frédéric Valletoux, near Edouard Philippe: “In 2027, we will be behind the same candidate.”
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