Édouard Philippe brings together 400 Ile-de-France executives from Horizons

The former Prime Minister will not be in front of his television on Tuesday evening at the start of Emmanuel Macron’s press conference. He will be with several hundred Horizons executives from Ile-de-France with the next presidential election in his sights.

When Emmanuel Macron begins to speak, Tuesday January 16, at 8:15 p.m., Édouard Philippe will still be in front of 400 Horizons executives from Ile-de-France. This meeting with the referents, leaders of local committees and other Philippist mayors of the Ile-de-France region was planned well before the presidential intervention. This meeting will take place in Hauts-de-Seine, in Boulogne Billancourt, which joins the approximately 120 Ile-de-France municipalities already with Horizons committees.

The goal is to have 200 committees by the end of the year. Implementation work which continues throughout the country, with already 70 departmental delegates designated. “Having a party is a protective umbrella”, explains an executive. Protector against the ambitions of one and the other, when the competitors for 2027 such as Bruno Le Maire or Gérald Darmanin are dependent on Renaissance, the party of the head of state.

This meeting at the start of the year with Horizons executives takes place at “a pivotal moment”, recognizes someone close to Édouard Philippe, at a time when a young Prime Minister has just been appointed, in the person of Gabriel Attal. “Attal makes Philippe out of date!”, laughs a historic Macronist. Among the friends of the former Prime Minister, there are two types of reactions. On the one hand, those who worry: “you have to change gear”, “it is time for Édouard to be more free than loyal, we must show that there is dynamic at Horizons”.

The “tour de France of sub-prefectures” resumes

On the other, those who keep the old troops calm because, as one deputy says, “we have never seen a Prime Minister become President directly, but so much the better if Attal restarts the five-year term because Philippe knows that he cannot succeed on a field of ruins”, he explains. Another close friend of Édouard Philippe has a theory since Gabriel Attal challenged him in opinion studies, “after Macron, the French will want a president with roots and 30 years of politics behind him, so Attal is impossible, his turn will come but later”he summarizes.

Édouard Philippe will continue what he has been doing for several months: traveling the country. Her “tour of France of the sub-prefectures” resumes tomorrow in Aisne. Édouard Philippe will go see elected officials, visit a company and sign his latest book. The goal is to make one trip per week “and speeches when he wishes”, according to those around him. All this will be the subject of discussions Tuesday evening at the Horizons political office, before the motivational sequence for the troops in Boulogne.