Members of the Republicans chose on Sunday to nominate party boss Bruno Retailleau as their candidate for the 2027 presidential election by 73.8% of the votes during a consultation, ruling out the organization of an internal primary in June, LR indicated.
The proposal for a closed primary reserved exclusively for LR candidates only garnered 12.2% while the one which planned to open it to supporters did barely better (14%), said the party, stressing that participation reached 60.01%, or nearly 46,000 voters out of the approximately 76,000 members called to the polls. “I promise them from now on to go to the end to make our ideas win”, wrote on X the Vendéen, promising to be a candidate of “unity” and “in a year, the president of the recovery of France”.
Bring RN voters back to LR
This result was expected: the match was all the more complicated since no rival had expressed the wish to cross swords with the former Minister of the Interior, who had won the presidency of the party barely a year ago with the support of 75% of members against Laurent Wauquiez. At the time, this duel had increased the number of members to more than 120,000, much better than this Sunday.
Even if the polls put him well behind former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, the president of the party does not budge: “Our curves will cross in the fall,” he assures, convinced that the French are tired of “at the same time” and are not prepared to return “a Macronist” to the Elysée next year.
Rivals who have not said their last word
His nomination by the LR will not silence his rivals however: Laurent Wauquiez, supporter of an open primary which would go from the Macronist “Gérald Darmanin to Sarah Knafo” of the far-right Reconquest party, voted blank and denounced “a fool’s game”.
Among the party leaders, who last year supported Bruno Retailleau against Laurent Wauquiez, many are gnashing their teeth. The ultraliberal David Lisnard slammed the door of the party and launched alone into the race for the Elysée, Jean-François Copé brandishes the threat of a “schism” and Xavier Bertrand is preparing his own candidacy.
Same embarrassment for Michel Barnier, the former Prime Minister defends the idea of a conclave to nominate a single candidate within the right and the center. And a few hours before the results were announced on Sunday, he said he himself felt “capable of being President of the Republic”, giving an appointment in the fall, at a time when the proliferation of candidates will have to settle down…
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