Questions about political heritage are eternal. On August 28, 1969, four months after the resignation of the founder of the Ve République, a François Mauriac more Gaullian than ever analyzed the heavy weight on the shoulders of his successors. “Fidelity to de Gaulle, and we all agree on this point, cannot be expressed by an imitation, by a copy of what he was and without taking into account the changes that have occurred, the cards that we have not have more in hand »estimated the writer in his notepad (Mollat-Robert Laffont, 2020), before welcoming the change of Republic “who created the permanent conditions of salvation for when he was no longer there”. A year before his own death, Mauriac had hope: Gaullism would outlive de Gaulle.
The era has changed, the characters too. But not the questions. At the end of the summer, the Elysée had little appreciated seeing the beginning of a succession battle between a few tenors of the Macronist arc. For a few weeks, Gérald Darmanin, Bruno Le Maire and Edouard Philippe had been the subject of press articles on the “ambitious of 2027”. The post-Macron period began when his second term had barely begun. A crossing that recalled the way Nicolas Sarkozy had shaken the start of Jacques Chirac’s second term in 2002. Apparently, those concerned and their relatives have calmed this beginning of fever. Too early, too risky. “I can’t stand talking about 2027, it’s an insult to ignore the current five-year term”decides the senator François Patriat (Côte-d’Or).
Behind the scenes, however, the positioning battle continues with a major strategic question: will macronism survive Emmanuel Macron? In a landscape dominated by three blocks (left-Nupes, macronism, extreme right), can the center take the risk of mutating? Ironically in recent history, these reflections had first agitated the oppositions swept away and weakened after 2017. Since the re-election of April 2022, many majority executives have in turn wondered if the Macronist alliance which goes from the social -liberalism in the center right will be permanent or if it will collapse when the tenant of the Elysée no longer holds “the two ends of the omelet”according to a Juppeist expression.
For Philippe, the center right, a force of attraction
As soon as he was appointed to Matignon, Edouard Philippe described himself as a right-wing man. He has never taken much interest in the left wing of the majority and he is still convinced that the center right will be a force of attraction, even if those around him prefer to stall. “Macron’s succession will be a moment of truth. Macronism without Macron, it will necessarily not be the same thing, there will be an adaptationbelieves Gilles Boyer, MEP and former political adviser to Mr. Philippe at Matignon. Will there be the emergence of a macronism on the left and a macronism on the right? I doubt that the whole will remain united around someone. »
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