Edouard Philippe, the mayor of Le Havre, said on Sunday, 1 November, that the primary envisaged on the right and centre ahead of the 2027 presidential election 'will not take place' and 'doesn't make much sense.' Speaking on TF1's 8 p.m. news, he described the process as synonymous with 'division' and 'confusion.'
Philippe argued that the very principle of a primary is to highlight differences between candidates. 'I think we have to create common ground much more than emphasize our divisions,' he said. He also criticised the prospect of gathering figures with divergent political orientations, citing 'continuators of Macronism, like Gabriel Attal' and those who 'reach out to the union of the rights.' According to him, the exercise proposes to bring together people who do not agree and who have said repeatedly that they did not want to work with one another.
Asked how to exit the current political impasse, Philippe said candidates in that political space would have to take their 'responsibilities' to decide among themselves in February. The 'primary of democrats' promoted by Gabriel Attal (Renaissance) before the presidential election raises many questions, from the scope of participants to its modalities, while the presidential camp and the right are in great difficulty in the polls against the Rassemblement National (RN) and La France insoumise (LFI).
Philippe has repeatedly stated over months that he opposes the 'primary of democrats' as a method of choosing a candidate. On Wednesday evening, his party Horizons again received negatively Attal's proposal explicitly calling for a primary. Attal, during a trip to Brittany, said on the same channel that it was time for everyone to be responsible to 'prevent' a second round between the RN and LFI. On Friday, he also expressed conviction that the primary would take place, warning that those who did everything to block it would bear very heavy responsibility for a second round between LFI and the RN.
The debate over the exact composition of the primary remains open. Divergences over the participation of certain parties or figures, such as David Lisnard, illustrate the difficulty of uniting the whole right and centre around a common process. Some actors, like Raphaël Glucksmann, categorically refuse to join such an approach, saying they do not belong to that political space. Others, such as Marc Fesneau, worry about potential alliances with the far right, further complicating the construction of a united front.
Sources: Le Monde Politique.