What role will Édouard Philippe play? “The former Prime Minister has a vocation to participate fully in the campaign and to replace the candidate Macron in programs or hearings of candidates in front of representatives of sectors of activity”, insists a close friend of the president. Only here: on the side of Édouard Philippe, the agenda remains to be filled … “He will campaign, yes, but we are waiting for the instructions, no one is asked around him”, says a relative. Another squeaks: “We were not overwhelmed with requests”.
Distrust of the macronists towards a popular ex-Prime Minister? “We have not yet heard the executives of Horizons put themselves in battle order to go to campaign”, returns a Walker. Another: “Philippe, we are not going to dub him. ” Atmosphere. Also sign that the campaign will feature Emmanuel Macron, and him alone? “Between them, it’s like the Mitterrand-Rocard relationship,” says a regular at the Élysée.
The two men saw each other in Brest, during a dinner on February 10, in the company of Richard Ferrand. It was a question of “fundament, of ideas”, and not – we swear – of the tensions which agitated the majority, following the failed marriage between the movement of Philippe Horizons and the moderate right-wing party Agir. A rapprochement blocked by the Head of State. This Monday, Édouard Philippe will attend the “vigil of arms” of the majority at campaign headquarters.
The round back strategy
No question for the mayor of Le Havre to give up his little music. “Edouard is in the majority, recalls a friend. But he wants to work his space in a logic of coalition and not of fusion ”. On Saturday, he set up a local Horizons committee in Angers and decorated Mayor Christophe Béchu, the kingpin of the movement, with the Legion of Honor.
Around the Head of State, some like to note that “right-wing rallies like that of Éric Woerth go directly via the Macron motorway and not via the departmental Horizons “says a minister. On the Philippe side, we turn our backs, betting on the collapse of Valérie Pécresse to win the bet following the first round. The hardest part is to come with the investitures in the legislative elections, which fuel suspicions within the majority. Tensions that you will have to know how to channel…
