Faithful to Emmanuel Macron since 2017, the fifth vice-president of the National Assembly, Roland Lescure, could create a surprise and land in Matignon. On the right, the option is absolutely not convincing.
Early walker, what if Roland Lescure could create a surprise in this final straight towards Matignon? It is indeed music that has been rising since last night. The option would be considered by Emmanuel Macron, as it had been before the arrival of Gabriel Attal at Matignon last January, but it is far from unanimous within the Macronist camp and especially on the right. MoDem leaders oppose the Lescure hypothesis in favor of their leader François Bayrou, but they are joined by the right wing of Macronie and by a large part of the LR camp who plead for options like Sébastien Lecornu or Catherine Vautrin.
Roland Lescure faces opposition similar to that which had prevented the appointment of Catherine Vautrin, except that at the time the Prime Minister came from the right and had been rejected by the left wing of the Macronie. This time, the roles are reversed. The appointment of Roland Lescure could therefore divide the central bloc, arouse the anger of the right, without having the certainty of rallying the forces of the left. Despite his background and his rather left-wing origins, his passage in Macronie could be too great an obstacle to obtain the support of the PS, the Ecologists and the PCF.
Roland Lescure finally disowned on the right?
Arousing the anger of the right is an understatement. The Roland Lescure rumor had the gift of annoying the resigning Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau. A relative of the Beauvau tenant notably reminds Politico of Roland Lescure’s words against him, affirming that Retailleau was “making jokes to Marine Le Pen”. Enough to fuel the column and make relations between the two men, and with the right in general, relatively delicate.
Everything opposes the two men and particularly immigration. Lescure supports the regularization of undocumented workers in “stressed” sectors. “We will see how he intends to let the right apply its policy on the subjects of the Ministry of the Interior,” said a close friend of Bruno Retailleau to Politico. Indeed, the lines of the two men on the question seem so far apart that a nomination to Matignon for Roland Lescure this Friday, December 13, in the morning, still comes as a real surprise.
Alexis Kohler as main support
According to information from Politico, his candidacy would be very clearly supported by another close friend of the President of the Republic, in the person of Alexis Kohler. The secretary general of the Élysée “is trying to play a card at the last moment”, indicates a pillar of the ex-majority to the media. In his columns, we also learn that Roland Lescure presented himself at the Presidential Palace this Wednesday during the decoration ceremony of entrepreneur Serge Godin.
Franco-Canadian, Roland Lescure first said he belonged to a “pragmatic” center-left at the start of his career. It was in 2012 that he met Emmanuel Macron for the first time during a meeting with investors. LREM candidate in the 1st constituency of French people living abroad (Canada and United States) during the 2017 legislative elections, he was elected with a comfortable lead. There begins his romance with the macronie. In June 2017, he took over as chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly before being appointed Minister Delegate in charge of Industry and Energy. Since July 8, 2024, he has sat again in the lower house of Parliament as a deputy. He is also the fifth vice-president of the National Assembly since July 19.
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While the trail of François Bayrou as the next Prime Minister is fading from minute to minute, that of Roland Lescure is emerging. The Head of State received Vice-President Renaissance of the Assembly on Wednesday, in the middle of a series of meetings to find a replacement for Michel Barnier. Roland Lescure had already been considered as Prime Minister at the start of 2024, but it was ultimately Gabriel Attal who was appointed.
If he is indeed the one appointed, it is likely to provoke the anger of the right. Indeed, Roland Lescure comes from the PS and is part of the so-called left branch of the macronie, although the NFP does not share this opinion.