“Does he have the desire and the plan? I hope so. » On the one hand, Gérald Darmanin believes in an interview with Parisianthis Sunday, that Edouard Philippe, “is best placed today” to be the majority candidate for the presidential election in 2027.
The Minister of the Interior recognizes his qualities in any case. But on the other hand, he questions his “desire” and his “project”.
The fear of seeing Marine Le Pen elected
“We are still talking about France facing Marine Le Pen in a very turbulent world,” argues the Minister of the Interior, long known to be close to the former Prime Minister for both being from LR. If the far-right leader “is elected, I will tell myself that we have missed something, that I also have some responsibility,” he added. At the end of August, Gérald Darmanin estimated that a victory for Madame Le Pen in 2027 was “fairly probable”.
Regarding his own presidential ambitions, the former mayor of Tourcoing considered not having “the pretension of saying that (he) can be the successor of General de Gaulle”, according to him “the absolute model”.
Darmanin plays it modest
“When I see Emmanuel Macron or Nicolas Sarkozy, it’s energy, intelligence, working power. I’m not sure I have them,” he added, noting that “you also have to want to be a candidate: it’s very hard, you have to have the lucidity to know yourself perfectly.”
“What interests me most is influencing the political line of my country. It is to convince the President of the Republic,” he added in this interview with readers of the newspaper.
Asked about the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, in particular to know if it was “nice to work” with her, the Minister of the Interior also wanted to be concise: “It’s professional,” he said. answered.