The French right is rebuilding to recapture the Élysée Palace.

ParisThe presidential elections are almost two years away, but French parties are already starting to mobilize. While some left-wing parties are once again at odds and the far right has seen its leader sentenced to five years of disqualification from office, the right is trying to turn the page on the deep crisis it has been dragging on for years. Its goal is to recapture the Élysée Palace in 2027, taking advantage of the fact that the current president, Emmanuel Macron, will have already served the two consecutive terms allowed by French law and that, for now, Macronism has no clear heir.

The Republicans (LR) – the traditional right – have been struggling for years, with internal divisions that forced the departure of the party's previous number 1, Éric Ciotti, following the 2024 legislative elections, and with one of the conservative party's leading figures, former President Nicolas Sarkozy, convicted of corruption and influence peddling. In the second round of the last legislative elections, the party obtained a paltry 5.4% of the vote and only 38 deputies. Now the party aims to recover ahead of the 2026 municipal elections and the presidential elections the following year under its new leader, Bruno Retailleau, current Minister of the Interior of the multi-color government led by François Bayrou.

Retaille, ideologically very close to the extreme right on immigration issues, won the presidency of the Republicans last Sunday after defeating his rival, the president of the parliamentary group, Laurent Wauquiez, with 75%. Now he wants to relaunch the party, emerge from the crisis, and become the Conservatives' presidential candidate. "We have shown that the right is alive and well. The right must begin to write a new history," he proclaimed.

Other candidates

As a presidential candidate, he hasn't got everything covered yet. It's early days, and there are other candidates both inside and outside his party, notably former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, leader of the moderate right-wing Horitzons party, and Xavier Bertrand, one of the men of the LR. But with his overwhelming internal victory, Retailleau consolidates his position as the best-positioned candidate. The 64-year-old minister is described by those close to him as an "anti-Macron," anchored to the right and a staunch Catholic.

In a survey published on Thursday Le FigaroFor the first time, the Interior Minister's popularity surpassed Philippe's. "Everything in its own time," the new LR leader reassured this week in an interview on TF1 when asked if he would be the Conservative candidate. His priority is to rebuild the right and make the LR "a party capable of winning elections," he explained.

Le Pen's nervousness

Retailleau's political rise has unnerved Marine Le Pen's far-right party. He will probably not be able to run in the 2027 presidential elections. because she has been sentenced to five years of disqualification. The same survey of Le Figaro revealed that 65% of Le Pen voters have a positive opinion of the new leader of the Republican Party.

Looking ahead to the presidential elections, Retailleau may benefit not only from the uncertainty surrounding the far-right candidate, his role as a conservative minister, and the disputes between left-wing parties, but also from a likely weakening of the center-right that Macron has represented until now. The current president will not be able to run for reelection, and the question is whether Macronism will have a candidate worthy of the president's image. Former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is aspiring to succeed Macron, but everything is up in the air.

The president has not yet named his successor, and there are doubts about whether the movement launched by the Élysée Palace tenant can exist without him. "Probably, Macronism "It will be over in the coming months," French government spokeswoman Sophie Primas, a member of the Republicans, said on Tuesday. The statement has outraged Macronists, but it raises reasonable doubts given that the president's party—now called the Renaissance—essentially revolves around him.