Edouard Philippe, mayor of Le Havre and president of the right-wing Horizons party, and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne at the port of Le Havre, July 25, 2023
PARIS France
There had been a gentlemen's
agreement in the upper ranks of government: Hostilities for Emmanuel Macron's
succession in 2027 were not to start before the 2024 Olympic Games, halfway
through the president's second term.
So much for that. Under
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin's impetus, the dance has already
begun.
In mid-August, when he told Le
Figaro that he was now looking ahead to 2027, the spurned contender for
prime minister irritated many members of the governing coalition, who spoke out
against this lèse-majesté.
In the summer of 2022, he
had told Le Monde that it was far too early to be thinking about the
next presidential election. "We must all be intelligent enough to understand
that the battle is not now, it's 2025," he also said during a trip to the
overseas territory of Mayotte. He had added, "The first to cross the line
will be handicapped for what follows."
Yet, like his mentor Nicolas
Sarkozy, Darmanin has started to undertake sweeping maneuvers, just one year
after Macron's re-election.
Gérald Darmanin |
But with the path to succeed
Macron congested by so many contenders, each has to look for a brand with which
to distinguish themself, a political space to carve out. Darmanin is targeting
the "popular classes," which he calls "the key" to the
forthcoming election.
"We mustn't leave the
popular-class electorate alone with the RN [Rassemblement national], far
right," he said, criticizing the fact that no one in the majority is
addressing this group of voters.
The minister who never fails
to mention his humble origins believes that this positioning will enable him to
differentiate himself from his rivals, former prime minister Edouard Philippe
and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who are "fighting over the liberal
and progressive" identity, he said. "Me, I don't have any
doubles," he added.
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