Alone in the running, François Bayrou was re-elected for three years as president of MoDem, during the centrist party congress on Saturday March 23 in Blois. Founder of the Democratic Movement in 2007, the mayor of Pau received 88.1% of the votes of those attending the conference.
“I am very happy with this result, because it is a testimony of confidence and a testimony of faith in our future,” declared Mr. Bayrou during a speech, in front of around 600 people gathered in the Salle du Jeu de palm of Blois.
“We have, this weekend, a mission: to carry out a project of hope for France” in the face of “our main enemy”: “resignation and defeatism,” explained Mr. Bayrou. This “enemy serves the other enemies, all those who want to transform this dissatisfaction into detestation and hatred, all those who want to find scapegoats in our country, in our national community,” he continued.
Speech from Gabriel Attal expected
The MoDem, which claims some 12,000 members, holds its congress on Saturday and Sunday in the town of Loir-et-Cher. Interventions from the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, the head of the presidential majority list for the European elections, Valérie Hayer, and the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, are notably expected.
The centrist party has four representatives in the government: Minister Marc Fesneau (agriculture), delegate ministers Sarah El Haïry (childhood, youth and families) and Jean-Noël Barrot (Europe) and Secretary of State Marina Ferrari (digital). The MoDem also has 50 deputies within Emmanuel Macron’s relative majority, four senators and six European deputies.
The February reshuffle was marked by the episode of the real-false entry into the government of François Bayrou, who announced that he would not join Gabriel Attal’s team even though his name had been circulating for several days for the portfolio of national education.
