Édouard Philippe, former right-wing Prime Minister of Emmanuel Macron and candidate for the 2027 presidential election, announced on Sunday that he wanted to create “a new party”. He sees this new formation as “a confederation of parties”, which will allow all those who want to join forces in the service of the country, to govern together,” declared the president of the Horizons party.
Less than eight months before the first round of the presidential election, according to a latest poll this week for LCI, “Le Figaro” and “Sud Radio”, Edouard Philippe is credited with 18% to 21% of the votes, in second position behind the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who has 33% to 35% of voting intentions in the first round.
With legislative candidates expected to follow the presidential election, this party aims to create a “majority” in the National Assembly, added Edouard Philippe during a political event in the north of France.
Carry out a “political recomposition”
Prime Minister of Emmanuel Macron between 2017 and 2020, Édouard Philippe once again explained that he wanted to carry out a “political recomposition” and “bring together the right and the center”. “We must bring together those who share the values to which we are fundamentally attached: respect for the rule of law and the democratic model”, “attachment to European construction” or even “the choice of a market economy”, he listed.
He attacked both the far-right party of Marine le Pen, the National Rally, and the radical left of La France insoumise (LFI), whose leader is in third position in the polls. He called for a rally “so that we neither fall into the so-called ‘new France’ of LFI, nor into the nationalist and left-wing identitarianism of Ms. Le Pen.”
Edouard Philippe plays “the game” of Marine Le Pen
Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who “wants to be a candidate” in the presidential election, estimated on Sunday that Edouard Philippe was playing “into the hands” of Marine Le Pen by entering into a “one-upmanship” with his proposals to restrict immigration in the department of Mayotte.
Edouard Philippe, who visited the archipelago last week, has in fact promised a “total moratorium” on immigration in this department marked by significant illegal immigration from neighboring Comoros.
Two weeks after announcing his support for Edouard Philippe and putting an end to his own presidential ambitions, the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin estimated that he was “the only person who can win” and also the only one “who can have a parliamentary majority in the Assembly”.
