A river interview on immigration, some striking proposals such as the denunciation of an agreement with Algeria: Édouard Philippe continues his strategy towards the Élysée at his own pace, playing his own score in the majority and trying to swarm to the right .
No real surprise at Horizons: Édouard Philippe speaks little. All the more reason to try to make an impression when he speaks.
Always chiseled, his interventions are often double-edged: support for Gérald Darmanin and his text on “necessary” immigration… but “not sufficient”. Loyalty to Emmanuel Macron… but with a stone in the presidential garden, while relations with Algiers, on which the president has bet a lot, are still just as complicated.
“He is exactly in his strategy”, analyzes a leader of the majority. “On pensions, it was the same thing: loyal support for the government… and a thunderous proposal, the 67 years. There, on immigration, loyal support for the government… and Algeria.”
By advocating, in the columns of L’Express, to denounce the agreement concluded with Algiers in 1968, which creates a special status for Algerian nationals, the mayor of Le Havre is sending “a signal to the right-wing electorate. The fight for 2027 is engaged”, judges a deputy Les Républicains (LR).
“On the form, it’s rather well done: a period of silence, a position that is supposed to surprise, on a ground where it is not expected, and with a certain height of view”, abounds a strategist from the right. “But his problem is his record: you can’t have been Prime Minister in 2020 and find the moon on a subject which, however, is not new.”
The reactions at LR illustrate annoyance towards Édouard Philippe, this former support of Alain Juppé appointed to Matignon in 2017 by Emmanuel Macron, the first act of a vast enterprise of fracturing of the right.
Senate President LR Gérard Larcher said he was in favor of a review of the agreement with Algeria. But “I did not hear these words from Édouard Philippe in 2018 when he proposed a text to regulate migratory flows. A text which, moreover, had no effect”, he said. he adds.
Offensive against the executive on immigration, the LRs also received the message from Horizons. On Wednesday, their deputies tabled a motion for a resolution calling for denouncing the agreement with Algeria. What will the Phillipist MPs vote? “There is no reason for us to have a double or a triple discourse”, replied the president of the group Laurent Marcangeli, who also wishes to achieve “a common text” on immigration between LR and the majority .
In the presidential camp too, the approach of this “loyal but free” ally is carefully scrutinized. “He wants to counter the idea that he is a Juppeist manager who only talks about public finances and pensions”, judges a member of the left wing.
“Part of the right-wing electorate is with us, but part of us misses because they consider that we are too naive on the sovereign issues. Édouard Philippe has an interest in marking them”, analyzes a framework rather located on the right .
The mayor of Le Havre continues to survey the land quietly. This week, he went to Loiret then to Indre-et-Loire and will be Friday and Saturday in Gironde. It should take place in July during the economic meetings in Aix-en-Provence. And after immigration, the former Prime Minister should focus on Education.
After the summer break, and like last year in Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne), Horizons should organize a political return bringing together parliamentarians, mayors and executives of the movement, which claims more than 20,000 members, including 3,900 elected officials.
Next will come the senatorial elections. Horizons is already established at the Palais du Luxembourg with the group chaired by Claude Malhuret. “Mathematically, we are going to win senators. It creates irritation, especially at Macron”, judges an elected official, rather optimistic for the future of his boss, in particular with regard to the situation of the presidential party. “There remains a right and a left at Renaissance. It will be divided. And there will be a pro-Philippe current, and a current for (Bruno) Le Maire”.
06/08/2023 12:00:58 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
