Everyone is talking about David Lisnard, the "French Milei" and mayor of Cannes, who has his sights set on the Élysée Palace

Paris. For the past few days, a hashtag has been circulating persistently on French social media, aiming to become a self-fulfilling prophecy: #ilsepassequelquechose – something is happening. The figure at the centre of this curious digital phenomenon is David Lisnard, mayor of Cannes and president of the Association of French Mayors, who left Les Républicains following a row over the identitarian shift of the current Gaullist leader Bruno Retailleau, in order to launch his own liberal movement, Nouvelle Énergie, and officially stand as a candidate for the Élysée in 2027.

Until recently, Lisnard was a minor figure compared to the major players in national politics. Now, however, he appears to be establishing himself as a potential outsider ahead of next year’s presidential election – or at least within the narrative his supporters are constructing. The website La Loupe politique, which analyses online trends, has highlighted that Lisnard has gained 100,000 social media followers in a week, mainly on Instagram, and now has 354,000: a figure higher than that of Bruno Retailleau (108,000) and also that of Édouard Philippe (221,000), the former Prime Minister and leader of Horizons, who is leading the polls among centrist candidates to reach the run-off in 2027. The question is whether there is a genuine political dynamic behind the hype surrounding Lisnard, or whether it is merely a social media bubble.

The latest Ifop poll for LCI, carried out between 12 and 14 October, provides ammunition for those backing Lisnard. In the scenario tested by the polling organisation, which includes Philippe, Lisnard is credited with 6 per cent of voting intentions, ahead of Retailleau, who remains at 5 per cent. The previous poll, at the end of September, put him at 3.5 per cent. The increase of 2.5 percentage points across two closely spaced surveys signals a rise that warrants attention: presidential elections are won by establishing momentum.

“My strength lies in being outside the system and always sticking to the same line. The team supporting me is growing stronger. As of today, there are twelve of us at Nouvelle Énergie. We are expanding our head office in Paris. I do not allow myself to be carried away, but objectively speaking, momentum is building. Something is happening,” Lisnard told Ouest-France. “The only candidate people are talking to me about is Lisnard,” a minister who is a member of Les Républicains told L’Opinion, describing him as a man who “embodies a form of novelty, radicalism and modernity”.

Emmanuel Macron realised, following a trip to California with the visionary entrepreneur Xavier Niel in the summer of 2014 – whilst he was Minister for the Economy – that, with the advent of social media, it was now possible to bypass traditional political parties by mobilising a fanbase around one’s own name. In the spring of 2016, social media served as the real springboard for En Marche!, the movement created by Macron to pursue a liberal third way and move beyond the old Socialist-Gaullist bipolarity. Ten years on, Lisnard is attempting to replicate that break, albeit from a different ideological standpoint.

On X, there is a growing number of posts from commentators, communications experts, influencers and supporters urging people to take the mayor of Cannes seriously. Frank Tapiro, a former adviser to ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy, cites the precedent of Macron. Clément Macchi, a public opinion analyst with a large following on X, has announced a podcast with Lisnard. The media network close to the Breton magnate Vincent Bolloré – from CNews to the circles surrounding the Journal du dimanche – is helping to boost his popularity through interviews and special features.

Lisnard aspires to become the ‘French Milei’, and like the Argentine president, he is in fact fiercely anti-statist (at his rallies he is already promising €200 billion in budget cuts); he is a staunch defender of the free market but also an unconditional supporter of Israel. He advocates zero tolerance towards the excesses of political Islam and uncontrolled immigration. Last April in Paris, Lisnard used a shredder to symbolise his fight against the French bureaucratic behemoth and his ideological affinity with the occupant of the Casa Rosada: feeding sheets of paper representing the Labour Code, the Town and Country Planning Code and the Environmental Code into the machine, denouncing an ‘administrative Leviathan’ and promising a libertarian revolt in the style of Milei.

Lisnard aims to establish himself as the candidate of the ‘union of the right’, seeking to attract voters from the Rassemblement National who are concerned about Marine Le Pen’s interventionist stance, as well as those who have become disillusioned by the Bardella affair (Mediapart’s revelations regarding the anti-Semitic writings of the young RN president), as well as French voters with Gaullist leanings who regard both Retailleau and Philippe as candidates with little appeal.