Edouard Philippe left Matignon and his post as Prime Minister on July 3, 2020. Subsequently, he decided to return to local politics, returning to his seat as mayor of Le Havre. But the one who had acquired a higher popularity rating than that of President Macron dreamed of greater… And it was his wife Edith Chabre who curbed his desires.
Today, Edouard Philippe is campaigning in the context of the 2022 legislative elections for the candidates stamped Together – the coalition of parties around the presidential majority – but he could well have had other occupations if his wife had not put her grain salt in his career. Indeed, in 2019 the right-wing politician was seriously considering entering the race for mayor of Paris during the municipal elections. To fall the first city of France – held by the left since 2001 – in the hands of the majority, it would have been a big war prize… But Edouard Philippe gave up.
In the book titled The Truth about Edouard Philippe, signed Tugdual Denis, we discover the words of Edouard Philippe who then admitted having settled the question of this candidacy with the family. “She didn’t want to be the wife of the mayor of Paris. My children [il est le papa Anatole, Léonard et Sarah, ndlr] either for that matter. We had a family discussion. The town hall of Le Havre? OK. The Presidency of the Republic? Ok. But not the town hall of Paris“, let go of the former Prime Minister. It was finally Rachida Dati for Les Républicains and the disparaged former Minister of Health Agnès Buzin for La République en Marche who faced the outgoing Socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo. At the end of the second round, the woman on the left retained the mayor of Paris, the Paris en commun lists winning 48.4% of the vote.
Edouard Philippe, who has since founded yet another political movement called Horizons, is therefore now beating the pavement to win the candidates of the presidential majority in the legislative elections. While the Nupes, the coalition of left-wing parties led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon came on par with them – they claim the lead because of a decried vote count by the Ministry of the Interior -, the second round Sunday, June 19, 2022 looks tense. The government could well lose its absolute majority…