French President Emmanuel Macron. /
The president will not be able to stand for the next presidential elections since the French Constitution prohibits it
The Republic on the Move (LRME), the political movement founded in April 2016 by the current French president, Emmanuel Macron, officially changed its name yesterday. From now on it is called Renaissance (Renaissance). Thus, the formation is refounded and is already preparing for a future without him. Macron, 44, will not be able to run in the 2027 presidential elections, since the Constitution prohibits it, so a president can only serve two consecutive 5-year terms in France.
Some 2,000 people participated this Saturday in Paris in the refoundation congress of Macron’s party. The Carrousel du Louvre, the site where the event was held, was not chosen at random. In 2017, the young president celebrated his victory at the Louvre pyramid with a spectacular staging for his speech and to the chords of ‘The Ode of Joy’, the anthem of the European Union.
To face future challenges, “we need a solid, anchored and structured party. An open, transgressive and innovative party. Renaissance will be that party. And our values will be our foundations, on which we will build and grow,” said Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne. “We will not look at whether an idea is left or right, only if it is a good idea,” promised Borne, who considered that by changing the name of Macron’s political movement, six years after its creation, it reaches its “maturity.” .
honorary president
Renaissance will be led by MEP Stéphane Séjourné, close to the current president. Séjourné, 37, replaces Stanislas Guerini, current Minister for Transformation and Public Administration. Macron, who did not participate in the congress, will be the party’s honorary president. Last April, Macron urged all the parties of the presidential majority to found “a great political and action movement”, despite their small ideological differences. He made this call between the two rounds of the presidential elections and with his eyes set on the legislative elections in June. His party lost the absolute majority in the National Assembly in those elections.
Renaissance is the sum of three formations: The Republic on the Move, Territories of Progress by Minister Olivier Dussopt and Agir (Act) by Minister Franck Riester. Macron, however, has failed to convince Modem, François Bayrou’s moderate party, and Edouard Philippe’s Horizontes to join Rebirth, so they will remain independent.
Séjourné, a ‘macronista’ who until now has remained in the shadows, will have to prepare the party for the next electoral appointments: the European ones in 2024, the municipal ones in 2026 and the presidential ones in 2027. One of the great problems of La Republique En Marche , a formation created around the figure of Macron, is its lack of local anchorage. He wins the presidential elections, but he usually clicks in other elections.
They will pay quote
The congress held this Saturday at the Carrousel du Louvre will also mark the transformation of Macron’s political movement into a classic party. The militants will pay a contribution and will not be able to join another formation – until now one could join En Marche for free, according to the website of this political movement.
When Macron launched En Marche in April 2016, he presented it as a new political movement, “neither left nor right”, which had to overcome the old political parties. Macron, who at the time was Economy Minister to Socialist President François Hollande, promised another way of doing politics. He dynamited the system of the old political parties by winning the elections in 2017 with a new movement founded a year earlier. The Socialist Party and the Republicans, the conservatives, have not yet recovered from their irruption on the French political scene.
Séjourné will also have to prepare the delicate succession of Macron. Renaissance will present a candidate in the presidential elections. Although 2027 is still a long way off, two government men are already preparing behind the scenes to replace Macron: Bruno Le Maire, the current Minister of the Economy, and Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior.
Also appearing in all the pools is Édouard Philippe, Macron’s former prime minister and current mayor of Le Havre. Despite leaving the front line of national politics, Philippe remains a very popular leader in France and makes no secret of his presidential ambitions. The race to succeed Macron in 2027 has already begun.