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Turnout | 42.46% 15.64% | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Vote percentage for Wauquiez by department <65% 65–70% 70–75% 75–80% 80–85% >85% | |||||||||||||||||||||
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A leadership election for the presidency of The Republicans (LR) was held on 10 December 2017, the first since the refoundation of the party in 2015, before which it was known as the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), and seventh overall including the UMP congresses.
The leadership election followed the 2017 presidential election, in which its candidate François Fillon, the party nominee after winning the 2016 presidential primary, was eliminated in the first round. The party suffered further losses in the subsequent legislative elections, and the appointment of several right-wing ministers to the government of newly elected president Emmanuel Macron led to a split between "constructive" personalities and hardliners within the party, culminating in the expulsion of six prominent supporters and members of the government from The Republicans.
With the presidency of the party officially vacant since Fillon won the primary in November 2016, the political bureau of the party scheduled a leadership election a leadership election for 10 December 2017, with a second round on 17 December if no candidate secured a majority of the vote in the first round.
In a single-round vote on 10 December 2017, Laurent Wauquiez was elected by a wide margin, securing 74.64% of votes with turnout of just under 100,000 members, with his opponents Florence Portelli and Maël de Calan posting only marginal scores. Wauquiez was the only major politician from the party to stand in the leadership election, which Xavier Bertrand and Valérie Pécresse declined to contest. Following the result, Bertrand, the president of the regional council of Hauts-de-France, announced his departure from the party, noting his disagreement with Wauquiez's hard-right line.
On 30 May 2015, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) was refounded as The Republicans (LR), an initiative of Nicolas Sarkozy preceding the 2016 presidential primary for the 2017 presidential election. Sarkozy presided over the party until 23 August 2016, [1] when he declared his candidacy in the presidential primary, after which Laurent Wauquiez was appointed as interim president and Éric Woerth as general secretary of the party in accordance with its statutes. [2] The presidency of the party became vacant on 29 November after the primary was won by François Fillon, who appointed Bernard Accoyer as general secretary and Wauquiez as 1st vice president. [3]
In the first round of the 2017 presidential election, Fillon suffered a historic defeat, with the right eliminated in the first round for the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic amid "Penelopegate". [4] In the subsequent legislative elections, the right suffered further losses, losing nearly a hundred deputies, its worst score in the history of the Fifth Republic. [5]
Following the election of Emmanuel Macron as president under the banner of En Marche! and the subsequent appointment of three right-wing personalities in prominent posts in the newly formed government – Édouard Philippe as Prime Minister, Bruno Le Maire as French Ministry for the Economy and Finance, and Gérald Darmanin as Minister of Public Action and Accounts – a parliamentary group including LR dissidents supportive of the government, "The Constructives", was formed in the National Assembly, separate from the existing LR group. [6] Many LR figures called for the exclusion of the three ministers as well as Sébastien Lecornu, Thierry Solère, and Franck Riester, from the party. On 11 July, Accoyer announced that a "special commission" would "collect the explanations" of the six, postponing the exclusion decision until the autumn. [7] On 24 October, Le Maire confirmed that he left The Republicans for La République En Marche. [8] Darmamin, Lecornu, Solère, and Riester were formally excluded by the political bureau of the party on 31 October; Philippe was not formally excluded due to juridicial reasons, though the party noted his departure. [9] On 25 November, Darmamin, Lecornu, and Solère announced they joined La République En Marche, [10] while Riester founded a new centre-right party, Agir. [11]
On 11 July, the political bureau of The Republicans agreed to hold a leadership election for the new president of the party on 10 and 17 December, with nominations closing on 11 October. [12] Voting was held for 24 hours starting from 20:00 CET on 9 December in order to allow members of the party to vote regardless of their location, and be held in the same manner a week later if a second round was necessary. [13]
Candidates for the presidency of The Republicans were required to submit applications for their candidacies with sponsorships to the High Authority of the party by 11 October 2017. To be considered valid, applications required the sponsorship of at least 1% of party adherents (i.e., a minimum of 2,347) within at least 15 different departmental federations, without more than a fifth of sponsors originating from any single federation, in addition to at least 5% of LR parliamentarians in the deputies, senators, or MEPs (i.e., at least 13 parliamentarians). The list of official candidates was released by the High Authority on 26 October after the validation of sponsorships, marking the beginning of the official campaign, which ended at midnight on 8 December; in the event that a second round was needed, the official campaign would have continued from 11 to 15 December. [14]
Candidate name and age [lower-alpha 1] | Political office(s) | Details | |
---|---|---|---|
Maël de Calan (37) | Departmental councillor of Finistère (since 2015) Municipal councillor of Roscoff (since 2014) | The departmental councillor of Finistère, [15] president of the LR federation of Finistère, [16] municipal councillor of Roscoff, [17] and former spokesperson for Alain Juppé declared his candidacy on 5 September. [15] [18] De Calan supported Juppé during the 2016 primary; European, liberal on the economy, and moderately conservative on societal issues, he represented the "moderate right" in the leadership election after the decisions of Xavier Bertrand and Valérie Pécresse not to run left open a political space on the centre-right. [19] He outmaneuvered Agnès Le Brun to secure the LR investiture in Finistère's 4th constituency for the 2017 legislative election, [20] but narrowly lost to La République En Marche! (REM) candidate Sandrine Le Feur in the second round. [21] With regard to "The Constructives", de Calan defended a nuanced position, claiming that they were simply no longer members of the party and warned against using a "sectarian" exclusion procedure. [22] | |
Florence Portelli (39) | Mayor of Taverny (since 2014) Regional councillor of Île-de-France (since 2015) | The mayor of Taverny, regional councillor of Île-de-France, [23] national secretary for culture of The Republicans, [24] and former spokesman for François Fillon declared her candidacy on 29 August. [18] [23] Having supported Fillon during the 2012 leadership election, she was selected as a spokesperson for his 2017 presidential campaign after being elected as a regional councillor of Île-de-France in the 2015 elections, [25] but chose not to attend his 5 March rally at the Trocadéro, disgusted by anti-judge and anti-journalist chants. [26] The daughter of senator Hugues Portelli, she militated "for the right to recover its pride", to "return to activists the place that they should have in the party", and "a refoundation, a democratized functioning, a radical change to statutes and clarification of the ideological line of the party". [25] She excluded any possibility of cooperating with the extreme right, argued for the need to "reinforce" immigration control, and supported the definitive exclusion of LR members of "The Constructives", [19] saying they had "excluded themselves", but invited those who hoped that its creation would propel the right to reform "to return to the fold," believing them mistaken. [25] | |
Laurent Wauquiez (42) | President of the regional council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (since 2016) 1st vice president of The Republicans (since 2015) Other offices
| The president of the regional council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and 1st vice president of The Republicans declared his candidacy on 31 August. [2] [18] [27] Popular with the activist base of the party, Wauquiez's identitarian views echo those of Nicolas Sarkozy. [19] Despite being detested by many in the party leadership, Wauquiez's hard-right views, [28] emphasizing the themes of immigration, identity, and Islamism, [29] and appeals for a "right that is really right", gained him the backing of the party's supporters. [28] Though he repeatedly promised that he would not seek an alliance with the National Front (FN), [30] his refusal to support Emmanuel Macron against Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election reinforced fears that he might lead the party into an alliance with the FN. [28] Wauquiez was further castigated for his relationship with Sens Commun – a political association linked to The Republicans related to La Manif Pour Tous, which spearheaded the opposition to the legalization of same-sex marriage of France – with concerns about the group's openness to working with the FN and the extreme right. [31] Wauquiez denounced "The Constructives" as "traitors" who "have nothing left to do" in the party, but also hoped to unite the sensibilities of the right. [32] |
Because the number of paying members of the party constitutes only a small proportion of the French population, no surveys have explicitly surveyed voting intentions. However, surveys have been conducted among all French, including supporters of The Republicans and the right and centre, on the candidate they would support in the leadership election.
Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Laurent Wauquiez | Florence Portelli | Maël de Calan | Daniel Fasquelle | No response |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Election | 9–10 Dec 2017 | – | 74.64% | 16.11% | 9.25% | – | – |
Odoxa | 6–7 Dec 2017 | 113 | 62% | 20% | 14% | – | 4% |
Odoxa | 11–12 Oct 2017 | 133 | 78% | 14% | 2% | 4% | 2% |
Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Laurent Wauquiez | Florence Portelli | Maël de Calan | Daniel Fasquelle | No response |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Odoxa | 6–7 Dec 2017 | 986 | 40% | 32% | 19% | – | 9% |
Odoxa | 11–12 Oct 2017 | 992 | 44% | 29% | 10% | 7% | 10% |
Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | François Baroin | Xavier Bertrand | Laurent Wauquiez | Valérie Pécresse | None of these |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Harris Interactive | 19 Jun 2017 | – | 48% | 19% | 10% | 9% | 14% |
Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | François Baroin | Xavier Bertrand | Laurent Wauquiez | Valérie Pécresse | None of these |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Harris Interactive | 19 Jun 2017 | – | 40% | 20% | 13% | 8% | 19% |
Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | François Baroin | Xavier Bertrand | Laurent Wauquiez | Valérie Pécresse | None of these |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Harris Interactive | 19 Jun 2017 | 1,021 | 19% | 15% | 7% | 6% | 53% |
Candidate | First round | ||
---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | ||
Laurent Wauquiez | 73,554 | 74.64 | |
Florence Portelli | 15,876 | 16.11 | |
Maël de Calan | 9,113 | 9.25 | |
Total | 98,543 | 100.00 | |
Valid votes | 98,543 | 98.94 | |
Blank votes | 1,054 | 1.06 | |
Turnout | 99,597 | 42.46 | |
Abstentions | 134,959 | 57.54 | |
Registered voters | 234,556 | ||
Source: The Republicans |
Department | Laurent Wauquiez | Florence Portelli | Maël de Calan | Votes | Members | % | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | % | # | % | # | % | |||||
Ain | 777 | 87.01 | 77 | 8.62 | 39 | 4.37 | 899 | 1,875 | 47.95 | |
Aisne | 500 | 69.06 | 124 | 17.13 | 100 | 13.81 | 735 | 2,255 | 32.59 | |
Allier | 488 | 83.85 | 54 | 9.28 | 40 | 6.87 | 586 | 1,083 | 54.11 | |
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 221 | 80.66 | 36 | 13.14 | 17 | 6.20 | 278 | 685 | 40.58 | |
Hautes-Alpes | 176 | 82.24 | 30 | 14.02 | 8 | 3.74 | 214 | 523 | 40.92 | |
Alpes-Maritimes | 3,736 | 79.22 | 628 | 13.32 | 352 | 7.46 | 4,766 | 10,491 | 45.43 | |
Ardèche | 497 | 89.23 | 40 | 7.18 | 20 | 3.59 | 561 | 949 | 59.11 | |
Ardennes | 183 | 72.91 | 52 | 20.72 | 16 | 6.37 | 257 | 689 | 37.30 | |
Ariège | 139 | 78.53 | 24 | 13.56 | 14 | 7.91 | 180 | 379 | 47.49 | |
Aube | 287 | 69.66 | 98 | 23.79 | 27 | 6.55 | 421 | 1,163 | 36.20 | |
Aude | 428 | 80.91 | 67 | 12.67 | 34 | 6.43 | 534 | 1,197 | 44.61 | |
Aveyron | 211 | 83.40 | 33 | 13.04 | 9 | 3.56 | 257 | 641 | 40.09 | |
Bouches-du-Rhône | 3,585 | 83.35 | 510 | 11.86 | 206 | 4.79 | 4,357 | 10,509 | 41.46 | |
Calvados | 627 | 69.59 | 188 | 20.87 | 86 | 9.54 | 913 | 2,018 | 45.24 | |
Cantal | 182 | 91.46 | 5 | 2.51 | 12 | 6.03 | 200 | 371 | 53.91 | |
Charente | 244 | 72.62 | 37 | 11.01 | 55 | 16.37 | 338 | 788 | 42.89 | |
Charente-Maritime | 821 | 70.11 | 179 | 15.29 | 171 | 14.60 | 1,184 | 2,658 | 44.54 | |
Cher | 326 | 74.94 | 64 | 14.71 | 45 | 10.34 | 436 | 1,004 | 43.43 | |
Corrèze | 314 | 75.12 | 58 | 13.88 | 46 | 11.00 | 422 | 939 | 44.94 | |
Côte-d'Or | 618 | 73.57 | 130 | 15.48 | 92 | 10.95 | 852 | 1,938 | 43.96 | |
Côtes-d'Armor | 406 | 70.86 | 73 | 12.74 | 94 | 16.40 | 577 | 1,205 | 47.88 | |
Creuse | 129 | 83.77 | 18 | 11.69 | 7 | 4.55 | 154 | 371 | 41.51 | |
Dordogne | 458 | 77.36 | 77 | 13.01 | 57 | 9.63 | 597 | 1,409 | 42.37 | |
Doubs | 745 | 82.69 | 113 | 12.54 | 43 | 4.77 | 911 | 2,101 | 43.36 | |
Drôme | 639 | 82.88 | 91 | 11.80 | 41 | 5.32 | 773 | 1,699 | 45.50 | |
Eure | 428 | 75.09 | 100 | 17.54 | 42 | 7.37 | 580 | 1,557 | 37.25 | |
Eure-et-Loir | 448 | 79.43 | 72 | 12.77 | 44 | 7.80 | 572 | 1,268 | 45.11 | |
Finistère | 467 | 52.53 | 129 | 14.51 | 293 | 32.96 | 891 | 1,763 | 50.54 | |
Corse-du-Sud | 257 | 80.06 | 49 | 15.26 | 15 | 4.67 | 323 | 853 | 37.87 | |
Haute-Corse | 259 | 85.76 | 37 | 12.25 | 6 | 1.99 | 302 | 709 | 42.60 | |
Gard | 1,169 | 80.79 | 214 | 14.79 | 64 | 4.42 | 1,469 | 2,981 | 49.28 | |
Haute-Garonne | 1,396 | 75.58 | 299 | 16.19 | 152 | 8.23 | 1,863 | 3,856 | 48.31 | |
Gers | 195 | 74.71 | 45 | 17.24 | 21 | 8.05 | 261 | 548 | 47.63 | |
Gironde | 1,624 | 65.86 | 314 | 12.73 | 528 | 21.41 | 2,484 | 5,604 | 44.33 | |
Hérault | 1,421 | 79.83 | 246 | 13.82 | 113 | 6.35 | 1,798 | 3,928 | 45.77 | |
Ille-et-Vilaine | 451 | 61.11 | 138 | 18.70 | 149 | 20.19 | 750 | 1,815 | 41.32 | |
Indre | 217 | 72.33 | 59 | 19.67 | 24 | 8.00 | 303 | 639 | 47.42 | |
Indre-et-Loire | 657 | 69.30 | 212 | 22.36 | 79 | 8.33 | 963 | 2,217 | 43.44 | |
Isère | 1,431 | 85.28 | 179 | 10.67 | 68 | 4.05 | 1,690 | 3,422 | 49.39 | |
Jura | 357 | 78.12 | 43 | 9.41 | 57 | 12.47 | 461 | 1,084 | 42.53 | |
Landes | 367 | 71.68 | 83 | 16.21 | 62 | 12.11 | 521 | 1,180 | 44.15 | |
Loir-et-Cher | 326 | 77.43 | 73 | 17.34 | 22 | 5.23 | 423 | 834 | 50.72 | |
Loire | 881 | 87.75 | 75 | 7.47 | 48 | 4.78 | 1,015 | 1,825 | 55.62 | |
Haute-Loire | 575 | 97.96 | 7 | 1.19 | 5 | 0.85 | 587 | 844 | 69.55 | |
Loire-Atlantique | 1,096 | 68.80 | 366 | 22.98 | 131 | 8.22 | 1,612 | 3,999 | 40.31 | |
Loiret | 563 | 75.27 | 124 | 16.58 | 61 | 8.16 | 760 | 1,719 | 44.21 | |
Lot | 185 | 85.25 | 22 | 10.14 | 10 | 4.61 | 218 | 426 | 51.17 | |
Lot-et-Garonne | 338 | 76.82 | 48 | 10.91 | 54 | 12.27 | 444 | 1,085 | 40.92 | |
Lozère | 119 | 82.07 | 14 | 9.66 | 12 | 8.28 | 145 | 283 | 51.24 | |
Maine-et-Loire | 556 | 70.74 | 166 | 21.12 | 64 | 8.14 | 790 | 1,825 | 43.29 | |
Manche | 363 | 74.23 | 82 | 16.77 | 44 | 9.00 | 493 | 1,089 | 45.27 | |
Marne | 434 | 69.44 | 107 | 17.12 | 84 | 13.44 | 639 | 1,686 | 37.90 | |
Haute-Marne | 154 | 69.37 | 44 | 19.82 | 24 | 10.81 | 222 | 561 | 39.57 | |
Mayenne | 190 | 78.19 | 37 | 15.23 | 16 | 6.58 | 249 | 541 | 46.03 | |
Meurthe-et-Moselle | 646 | 79.75 | 121 | 14.94 | 43 | 5.31 | 816 | 1,760 | 46.36 | |
Meuse | 113 | 65.32 | 51 | 29.48 | 9 | 5.20 | 176 | 472 | 37.29 | |
Morbihan | 531 | 64.44 | 168 | 20.39 | 125 | 15.17 | 834 | 1,734 | 48.10 | |
Moselle | 670 | 80.43 | 93 | 11.16 | 70 | 8.40 | 842 | 2,282 | 36.90 | |
Nièvre | 156 | 74.29 | 35 | 16.67 | 19 | 9.05 | 212 | 478 | 44.35 | |
Nord | 1,418 | 71.15 | 377 | 18.92 | 198 | 9.93 | 2,024 | 5,149 | 39.31 | |
Oise | 863 | 70.91 | 263 | 21.61 | 91 | 7.48 | 1,232 | 3,114 | 39.56 | |
Orne | 229 | 63.26 | 97 | 26.80 | 36 | 9.94 | 369 | 874 | 42.22 | |
Pas-de-Calais | 832 | 72.66 | 216 | 18.86 | 97 | 8.47 | 1,170 | 2,681 | 43.64 | |
Puy-de-Dôme | 698 | 86.71 | 58 | 7.20 | 49 | 6.09 | 808 | 1,500 | 53.87 | |
Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 943 | 77.81 | 172 | 14.19 | 97 | 8.00 | 1,217 | 2,548 | 47.76 | |
Hautes-Pyrénées | 235 | 67.53 | 97 | 27.87 | 16 | 4.60 | 349 | 829 | 42.10 | |
Pyrénées-Orientales | 896 | 84.13 | 124 | 11.64 | 45 | 4.23 | 1,073 | 2,377 | 45.14 | |
Bas-Rhin | 701 | 73.56 | 150 | 15.74 | 102 | 10.70 | 969 | 2,576 | 37.62 | |
Haut-Rhin | 533 | 70.88 | 157 | 20.88 | 62 | 8.24 | 765 | 1,862 | 41.08 | |
Rhône | 2,783 | 84.05 | 334 | 10.09 | 194 | 5.86 | 3,328 | 6,770 | 49.16 | |
Haute-Saône | 309 | 82.18 | 43 | 11.44 | 24 | 6.38 | 381 | 884 | 43.10 | |
Saône-et-Loire | 587 | 72.65 | 121 | 14.98 | 100 | 12.38 | 814 | 1,621 | 50.22 | |
Sarthe | 312 | 55.91 | 203 | 36.38 | 43 | 7.71 | 567 | 1,293 | 43.85 | |
Savoie | 424 | 79.70 | 69 | 12.97 | 39 | 7.33 | 536 | 1,206 | 44.44 | |
Haute-Savoie | 965 | 77.89 | 189 | 15.25 | 85 | 6.86 | 1,253 | 2,819 | 44.45 | |
Paris | 3,935 | 66.07 | 1,210 | 20.32 | 811 | 13.62 | 6,010 | 17,033 | 35.28 | |
Seine-Maritime | 797 | 66.86 | 207 | 17.37 | 188 | 15.77 | 1,203 | 2,939 | 40.93 | |
Seine-et-Marne | 1,588 | 75.44 | 358 | 17.01 | 159 | 7.55 | 2,128 | 4,866 | 43.73 | |
Yvelines | 2,427 | 67.95 | 760 | 21.28 | 385 | 10.78 | 3,606 | 8,413 | 42.86 | |
Deux-Sèvres | 182 | 65.47 | 46 | 16.55 | 50 | 17.99 | 283 | 745 | 37.99 | |
Somme | 435 | 74.74 | 91 | 15.64 | 56 | 9.62 | 593 | 1,386 | 42.78 | |
Tarn | 446 | 86.10 | 47 | 9.07 | 25 | 4.83 | 523 | 1,104 | 47.37 | |
Tarn-et-Garonne | 345 | 80.61 | 63 | 14.72 | 20 | 4.67 | 428 | 782 | 54.73 | |
Var | 2,340 | 81.48 | 378 | 13.16 | 154 | 5.36 | 2,897 | 6,871 | 42.16 | |
Vaucluse | 832 | 80.00 | 139 | 13.37 | 69 | 6.63 | 1,056 | 2,218 | 47.61 | |
Vendée | 508 | 68.37 | 159 | 21.40 | 76 | 10.23 | 759 | 1,729 | 43.90 | |
Vienne | 303 | 66.45 | 68 | 14.91 | 85 | 18.64 | 457 | 1,061 | 43.07 | |
Haute-Vienne | 460 | 84.56 | 44 | 8.09 | 40 | 7.35 | 551 | 1,103 | 49.95 | |
Vosges | 341 | 73.18 | 89 | 19.10 | 36 | 7.73 | 470 | 1,091 | 43.08 | |
Yonne | 399 | 76.58 | 68 | 13.05 | 54 | 10.36 | 524 | 1,071 | 48.93 | |
Territoire de Belfort | 588 | 82.47 | 95 | 13.32 | 30 | 4.21 | 725 | 1,740 | 41.67 | |
Essonne | 1,139 | 71.59 | 313 | 19.67 | 139 | 8.74 | 1,617 | 3,615 | 44.73 | |
Hauts-de-Seine | 3,241 | 67.34 | 992 | 20.61 | 580 | 12.05 | 4,863 | 13,137 | 37.02 | |
Seine-Saint-Denis | 726 | 73.11 | 193 | 19.44 | 74 | 7.45 | 1,007 | 2,423 | 41.56 | |
Val-de-Marne | 1,441 | 71.44 | 356 | 17.65 | 220 | 10.91 | 2,049 | 4,499 | 45.54 | |
Val-d'Oise | 989 | 58.49 | 520 | 30.75 | 182 | 10.76 | 1,706 | 3,724 | 45.81 | |
Guadeloupe | 132 | 78.11 | 29 | 17.16 | 8 | 4.73 | 169 | 482 | 35.06 | |
Martinique | 92 | 73.02 | 26 | 20.63 | 8 | 6.35 | 127 | 474 | 26.79 | |
French Guiana | 16 | 59.26 | 9 | 33.33 | 2 | 7.41 | 27 | 146 | 18.49 | |
Réunion | 401 | 82.68 | 55 | 11.34 | 29 | 5.98 | 495 | 1,445 | 34.26 | |
Mayotte | 114 | 85.07 | 8 | 5.97 | 12 | 8.96 | 134 | 893 | 15.01 | |
New Caledonia | 188 | 83.19 | 30 | 13.27 | 8 | 3.54 | 229 | 1,792 | 12.78 | |
French residents overseas | 624 | 65.27 | 188 | 19.67 | 144 | 15.06 | 967 | 3,561 | 27.16 | |
Other departments [lower-alpha 2] | 20 | 68.97 | 7 | 24.14 | 2 | 6.90 | 29 | 303 | 9.57 | |
Total | 73,554 | 74.64 | 15,876 | 16.11 | 9,113 | 9.25 | 99,597 | 234,556 | 42.46 | |
Source: The Republicans |
On 11 December 2017, following the election of Laurent Wauquiez as president of the party, Xavier Bertrand, president of the regional council of Hauts-de-France, announced that he would "definitively quit" The Republicans. Appearing on France 2, he stated that he no longer recognized his party and therefore decided to leave it the evening of the election, having already been critical of Wauquiez's failure to clearly commit against the extreme-right and engagement with the FN. [45] Bertrand said that he did not intend to join or create a political party, adding that "my party is the Hauts-de-France region". [46] Wauquiez's victory was met with relative silence among political personalities of the moderate right, with no acknowledgement or congratulation to Valérie Pécresse and Christian Estrosi silent, and Alain Juppé merely noting that the election produced a "victory without surprise". [47] Prior to the election, Jean-Christophe Lagarde, president of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), stated that there would no longer be an alliance between the two parties in the case of a Wauquiez victory. [48]
On 13 December, Wauquiez unveiled his selections for the leadership of the party, with Virginie Calmels, Guillaume Peltier, and Damien Abad appointed as vice presidents, Annie Genevard appointed as secretary general, in addition to six deputy secretaries general and spokespersons. Wauquiez will meet with Pécresse later in the week. [49]
Christian Jacob is a French politician who was the president of the Republicans party from 2019 to 2022. Over the course of his career, he held several cabinet positions, including as the Minister of French Civil Service in Jacques Chirac's second term as President of France.
Laurent Timothée Marie Wauquiez is a French politician who has presided over the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes since 2016. He is a member of The Republicans (LR), which he led from 2017 to 2019 following the resignation of Nicolas Sarkozy.
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The Republicans is a liberal conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed on 30 May 2015 as the re-incorporation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been established in 2002 under the leadership of then-President of France, Jacques Chirac.
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Annie Genevard is a French politician who has represented the 5th constituency of the Doubs department in the National Assembly since 2012. In addition to her parliamentary service, she has been secretary-general of The Republicans (LR) under party leaders Laurent Wauquiez (2017–2019) and Éric Ciotti (2023–present). From 4 July 2022 until 11 December 2022, she was the ad interim party leader following the resignation of Christian Jacob, in her role as first party vice president, which she had held since 6 July 2021.
Olivier Marleix is a French politician of the Republicans (LR) who has been representing the 2nd constituency of the Eure-et-Loir department in the National Assembly since 2012.
Florence Portelli is a French politician who has been serving as Mayor of Taverny since 2014. She has also been a regional councillor of Île-de-France since 2015.
European Parliament elections were held in France on 26 May 2019, electing members of the 9th French delegation to the European Parliament as part of the elections held across the European Union. The election featured two major changes since the 2014 election: the return to a single national constituency and the increase in the number of French seats from 74 to 79 upon the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Officially, 79 MEPs were considered to have been elected, including five "virtual" MEPs who did not take their seats until the UK formally left the EU. The election featured 34 separate electoral lists, a record number at the national level.
Christelle Morançais is a French politician of the Horizons party who has been serving as the Regional Council President for the Pays de la Loire region since 2017.
Virginie Duby-Muller is a French politician of The Republicans (LR) who has been a member of the National Assembly since the 2012 elections, representing Haute-Savoie's 4th constituency. Within her party, she has been serving as deputy chairwoman since 2019, under the leadership of chairman Christian Jacob.
Aurélien Pradié is a French politician who has represented the 1st constituency of the Lot department in the National Assembly since 2017. He has also held a seat in the Regional Council of Occitania since 2021, previously in office from 2016 to 2018. In addition to his work in Parliament, he was appointed secretary-general of The Republicans (LR) in 2019 after Christian Jacob was elected party leader, making him its third highest-ranking politician.
Soyons Libres (SL), also called Libres,, is a French political party that was founded in 2017 by Valérie Pécresse, within The Republicans.
A leadership election was held in 2019 for the Republicans. It was triggered by the resignation of Laurent Wauquiez and was won by Christian Jacob.
Robin Reda is a French politician who has represented the 7th constituency of Essonne in the National Assembly since 2017. A member of The Republicans (LR), he previously served as Mayor of Juvisy-sur-Orge from 2014 to 2017.
The 2021 The Republicans (LR) congress, also known as the Congress for France, was an organised internal primary held from 1 to 4 December. It was organised by the party in order to nominate the candidate that would represent it in the 2022 presidential election. Valérie Pécresse was chosen as the party's presidential nominee in a two-round voting process.
The National Rally–The Republicans alliance crisis was triggered by the formation of the Union of the Far-Right, an alliance between Éric Ciotti, the president of The Republicans (LR), and the National Rally (RN) ahead of the 2024 French legislative election. The alliance was presented as a "political revolution", but this was strongly contested by almost all of the LR MPs and senators. For the first time in French politics, the senior members of the party voted unanimously to remove its president, accusing him of having conducted "secret negotiations, without consultation with his political family and activists" and of not respecting the party statutes. This marks the first time that a major party has allied with the National Rally, breaking the traditional cordon sanitaire against the far-right.