The party of the former Prime Minister held its first major rally this Saturday in Vincennes. A tour de force to weigh within the majority and continue to rally support among Les Républicains.
Show the muscles to weigh within the majority, this is the objective of the former Prime Minister and now president of Horizons, Edouard Philippe, for the first congress of the party. With 3,000 people, at the Parc Floral de Paris, in Vincennes, Saturday March 25, Edouard Philippe wanted to display his troops with many local elected officials. A way of recalling its establishment in territories in the midst of a political crisis. “You are the linchpins of this party” also addressed the party president in his chief mayor costume.
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For the former Prime Minister, this first congress looks like a stepping stone, he who relies on the local level to aim for the national. “You have in your hands the key to success, lance Edouard Philippe. You are a little over 800. We are not in a race, but we must gradually increase to a thousand, then two, then 3,000 to be present everywhere in France, including in small towns. Horizons is for him “an extremely powerful tool, both for conveying messages and for campaigning when the time comes.”
We feel that there is a desire to find, to build something else. Because the Republicans are increasingly disappointing.
Alain Chretien, Mayor of Vesoulat franceinfo
And to move up a gear, according to the mayor of Vesoul, Alain Chrétien, you have to look to the right: “We have a lot of center-right mayors who have left the Republicans, [ou] who have never been with the Republicans, but who are very seduced by the ideas of Edouard Philippe. So we do bilateral work, we go see them, we discuss with them and they have to cross the Rubicon sometimes with their deputy.
To inspire, it must also be said that the party attracts. The Niçois and number two of the party Christian Estrosi ensures that Horizons has welcomed 20,000 members in a year and a half. “You could think that we were a formation of notables, no, we are a formation of militants, ensures the Republican defector. When you see, despite the transport strike, the number of people who came from all the provinces of France, it shows how much we count today.
A show of force when Horizons feels neglected by Renaissance, the presidential party, especially in the Assembly. In the Bourbon Palace, it is Laurent Marcangeli who holds the head of the Horizon group within the majority. “Politics is also a story of the balance of power, it is sometimes also to exist within a coalition, of the presidential majority to which we are proud to belong, he explains. It is the number of activists that counts. The number of elected officials and the fervor that all of this can generate.” Fervor without rising too fast or too strong to avoid running out of steam before 2027 and the next presidential election.