“It was the President of the Republic who killed the presidential majority.” With a murderous sentence, Edouard Philippe distanced himself from the dissolution desired by Emmanuel Macron. “I know what I think, and I would have the opportunity to say it…” he added, leaving no doubt about how badly he thought about it, last Thursday at the microphone of TF1. Informed of this decision at the last minute, the former Prime Minister was forced to review his plans for the next presidential election. Is this great upheaval pushing the mayor of Le Havre to accelerate his break with the head of state?
A “new majority”
While the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7 promise to be delicate for the presidential camp, the boss of Horizons called for the constitution of “a new parliamentary majority which will operate on different bases”, without further details. Traveling in Dordogne this Monday, Edouard Philippe outlined his plan: bringing together “the conservative right with the social democratic left”. In short, everything that will exist in the Hemicycle on July 8 between La France insoumise and the National Rally.
A way of recreating the central bloc dear to Emmanuel Macron… but without the president, this time to better gather around his person. “It’s not a rupture, but an emancipation. Within a new majority which will no longer be presidential but parliamentary,” says Cendra Motin, ex-MP and Horizons candidate in Isère, in her own way. “The situation is pushing him to accelerate, he will not shy away from his responsibilities,” adds a party executive. Some in the central bloc are angry with Macron and are very happy to hear Edouard Philippe. »
Independence without break
The former head of government has increased his trips to the field in recent days. To support its candidates, but also those of Renaissance, MoDem, and LR. Edouard Philippe’s party has extended its hold on the centrist camp a little further, going from 58 candidates in 2022 to 80 this time. He also supports a dissident against an outgoing Renaissance elected official in Val-de-Marne. But the total break, pushed internally by some, will not happen right away. If they do indeed start under the Ensemble banner, the Horizons candidates will however be “under their own colors”, and without an agreement on the distribution of party financing as in 2022.
On the leaflets and electoral posters, it is therefore the face of Edouard Philippe which accompanies the candidates, as in the 7th constituency of Seine-et-Marne. “France needs to create a new chapter, and Edouard Philippe has a unifying role to play,” explains Christian Robache, who here wears the colors of the party.
“People have already turned the Macron page”
Emmanuel Macron is now relegated to the background, as the mayor of Le Havre had pushed him to do on June 11, not considering it “completely healthy” for the unpopular president to get too involved in the campaign. The next day, at a press conference, the latter responded, mocking the “thwarted personal ambitions of both parties” with the dissolution. After months of quiet war, the anticipated legislative elections therefore seem to have opened a new stage of the announced divorce.
“ “Gabriel Attal also distanced himself from the president. The dissolution satisfied no one. People have already turned the page on Emmanuel Macron. Whatever the coming majority, it is no longer the president who will have control,” squeaks a Horizons executive. »
Criticisms that irritate some executives of the presidential party. “Ingratitude is the vice that costs the least. But now is not the time to stand out, to add chaos to chaos. We must unite, we will need a strong president on the evening of July 7,” says François Patriat, head of the Renaissance senators. Who warns: “We have never seen rebels reap the benefits. Where are Hollande’s rebels today? They have disappeared.”
If the boss of Horizons has chosen to accelerate his independence strategy, it is because the “central bloc” could well be reduced to a bare minimum in the next Assembly. After having “killed” the majority, Edouard Philippe perhaps fears that the bomb of dissolution will also destroy his own ambitions.