Centre-left elections in France: Macron proposes a ‘third force’

In 2027, Emmanuel Macron will be unable to stand for the Élysée due to term limits, but he wishes to spearhead a political realignment that would give rise to a ‘third force’ capable of defeating the leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in the first round and the champion of French sovereignty, Marine Le Pen, in the second. Faced with the fragmentation of the so-called “central bloc”, split between various candidates, and the risk of a run-off between extremist parties – La France insoumise (LFI) on the left and the Rassemblement National (RN) on the right – the French president confided to some visitors at the Élysée Palace on Wednesday evening that he was in favour of forming a grand coalition as early as the first round, centred on a single candidate.

A broad-based alliance, ranging from the Social Democratic leader Raphaël Glucksmann, frontman of Place publique, to the rising star of the liberal right, David Lisnard, president of Nouvelle énergie, and which would include former Macronist prime ministers Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal, as well as the leader of the Gaullists, Bruno Retailleau. According to Macron, the primaries proposed by Attal in recent weeks are not the solution to the centre’s problems: first and foremost, work must be done on a strong programme, and only then will the best candidate be chosen to champion it before the French people. The president would like the various leaders to start working on a common programme for France straight away, following the same logic of ‘overcoming’ the old political divides that brought him to the Élysée in 2017. Having returned to the forefront of the domestic political scene following the mass protests against the cost of living, the head of state has no intention of stepping aside just yet. He is seeking a new ‘en même temps’ so as not to go down in history as the president who handed the country over to extremists.