On 17 December 2017, at the congress of the Democratic Movement (MoDem), Christophe Castaner said he supported an "enlarged list" for the European elections based on their alliance,[11] and on 26 September 2018, the movement officially announced the opening of applications for prospective candidates from civil society,[12] receiving 2,673 in total,[13] winnowed by an investiture committee chaired by Jean-Marc Borello.[14] Former Élysée advisor Stéphane Séjourné was designated campaign director on 29 October, tasked with creating a list alongside Agir,[15] and seeking a lead candidate with a "green profile".[16] For the MoDem, Bayrou selected Régis Lefebvre to serve as deputy campaign director.[17]
In March 2019, Les Échos reported that the choice of lead candidate was to be made internally between either health minister Agnès Buzyn or European affairs minister Nathalie Loiseau.[18] Loiseau officially announced she would seek the nomination for lead candidate following her debate with Marine Le Pen on the set of L'Émission politique on 14 March,[19] while Les Échos and Le Parisien later reported that Buzyn withdrew her name from consideration.[20] Loiseau was officially designated as lead candidate on 26 March as the list of the first 30 candidates was unveiled.[21]Alain Juppé was the subject of early speculation regarding his potential candidacy to lead the list,[22] though confirmed on 19 March 2018 that he would not stand,[23] and his appointment to the Constitutional Council precluded his participation in the campaign, but he indicated he would have supported Macron's list.[24]
LaREM was expected to sign a cooperation agreement with the ALDE group for the 2019 European Parliament election.[25] However, owing to the Gilets Jaunes protests and the rise of national populism within France, Macron opted to run a campaign focusing more on electing representatives of his party to the European Parliament, than campaigning for ALDE. Macron styled his campaign as "Renaissance", calling for a renaissance across Europe.[26] The electoral slate which comprised Macron's LaREM, MoDem and other parties was subsequently named the Renaissance List.
On 15 February, Challenges revealed that EELV MEP Pascal Durand would be on the list in an electable position and Séjourné in the top 25 places.[27] The centre-right party Agir proposed several candidates for the list, including two in electable position: Nicolas Barnier (the son of Michel Barnier and a parliamentary assistant), as well as Fabienne Keller, Gilles Boyer, Élisabeth Morin-Chartier, and Xavier Fournier.[28] In an interview published in Challenges on 6 February, Radical Movement co-president Laurent Hénart indicated that the movement would likely vote to join a common list,[29] sparking dissent among some ex-PRG members including co-president Sylvia Pinel, who announced her departure from the party to resurrect the PRG on two days later.[30] The candidates it proposed included outgoing MEP Dominique Riquet, Olga Johnson, and Mélanie Fortier.[31] One outgoing MEP, Jean Arthuis, announced that he would not seek to run again in 2019,[32] and Agir MEP Tokia Saïfi also retired,[33] as did the party's other MEP Élisabeth Morin-Chartier after learning she would not be in electable position on the list.[34] Foreign nationals were also on the list, including former Italian undersecretary for European affairs Sandro Gozi.[35] After declining to run as a lead candidate, Canfin ultimately appeared in second on the list.[36]
La République En Marche considered alliances with similar European political parties including Citizens in Spain and the Democratic Party in Italy, as well as parties outside of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade was delegated with the task of forming contacts with potential European partners.[37] On 9 September 2018, Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the ALDE group, claimed that La République En Marche would ally with ALDE, which Castaner denied.[38] Reports in October indicated Macron and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte reached an agreement in principle for an alliance, though Anglade emphasized that ALDE parties would merely serve as the foundation, with EPP parties on the right such as Civic Platform in Poland and New Democracy in Greece as well as PES parties on the left including the Democratic Party in Italy and the Social Democratic Party of Austria in consideration. The party considered recruiting MEPs to form a group after the election.[39] Following the airing of a report on France 2 on 11 March about ALDE's financial backing from Monsanto, manufacturer of glyphosate, the party announced that it would not join the ALDE,[40] leading the latter to announce it would no longer accept corporate donations.[41] Verhofstadt later announced on 2 May that the ALDE group would be dissolved after the elections to ally and create a new group.[42] Following the election, the ALDE parliamentary group reformed into Renew Europe, incorporating Macron's Renaissance.
From its foundation in November, the coalition has been headed by Ferrand as its leader, Bayrou and Édouard Philippe as vice-presidents, and Stanislas Guerini as secretary-general.[48][49]Jean Castex has also affiliated himself with the coalition.[50] Philippe suspended its participation in the coalition on 14 January 2022, although, four days later he had announced that his party was reinstated into the coalition.[51][52] In April, LREM announced that it would change its party name to "Renaissance", and a month later, the name of the coalition was shortened to just Ensemble.[53][54] The Progressive Federation joined the coalition in May 2022.[55]
The coalition aimed to bring the presidential majority of Emmanuel Macron together in order to present its joint candidates for the 2022 French legislative election.[43][45] In May 2022, Ferrand indicated their commitment for "a stable majority in the National Assembly", while Philippe specified that the program of Ensemble "is that of the Macron". Bayrou indicated that the parties would form a joint parliamentary group in the National Assembly, however Renaissance, MoDem, and Horizons each formed separate parliamentary groups following the legislative elections.[56] Some media sources consider it as a modern incarnation of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's Union for French Democracy (UDF), founded in 1978.[57]
Marielle de Sarnez was a French politician who served as Secretary of State for European Affairs under Prime Minister Édouard Philippe.
The Democratic Movement is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was established by François Bayrou to succeed the Union for French Democracy (UDF) and contest the 2007 legislative election, after his strong showing in the 2007 presidential election. Initially named the Democratic Party, the party was renamed "Democratic Movement", because there was already a small Democratic Party in France.
Marc Fesneau is a French politician who has served as Minister of Agriculture and Food in the government of Prime Ministers Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal since 20 May 2022. A member of the Democratic Movement (MoDem), he previously represented the 1st constituency of the Loir-et-Cher department and presided over the Democratic Movement and affiliated group in the National Assembly from 2017 to 2018.
The Union of Democrats and Independents is a centre to centre-right political party in France and former electoral alliance founded on 18 September 2012 on the basis of the parliamentary group of the same name in the National Assembly. The party was composed of separate political parties who retained their independence, but always in coalition with the biggest right wing party The Republicans. As most of them have been expelled or have left, the Democratic European Force is the last founding party to participate in the UDI.
Legislative elections were held in France on 11 and 18 June 2017 to elect the 577 members of the 15th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. They followed the two-round presidential election won by Emmanuel Macron. The centrist party he founded in 2016, La République En Marche! (LREM), led an alliance with the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem); together, the two parties won 350 of the 577 seats—a substantial majority—in the National Assembly, including an outright majority of 308 seats for LREM. The Socialist Party (PS) was reduced to 30 seats and the Republicans (LR) reduced to 112 seats, and both parties' allies also suffered from a marked drop in support; these were the lowest-ever scores for the centre-left and centre-right in the legislative elections. The movement founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, la France Insoumise (FI), secured 17 seats, enough for a group in the National Assembly. Among other major parties, the French Communist Party (PCF) secured ten and the National Front (FN) obtained eight seats. Both rounds of the legislative election were marked by record low turnout.
Renaissance (RE) is a liberal and centrist political party in France. The party was originally known as En Marche ! and later La République En Marche !, before adopting its current name in September 2022. RE is the leading force of the centrist Together coalition, coalesced around Emmanuel Macron's original presidential majority.
Richard Ferrand is a French politician of La République En Marche! (LREM) who served as President of the National Assembly from 2018 to 2022. He had served as a member of the National Assembly for Finistère's 6th constituency from 2012 to 2022. A longtime member of the Socialist Party, he was LREM's General Secretary from October 2016. He briefly served as Minister for the Cohesion of Territories between May and June 2017 before resigning due to nepotism accusations. Following his resignation, he became the leader of the party's group in the National Assembly in June 2017 and then was elected to the Chamber's Presidency in September 2018.
The second Philippe government was the forty-first government of the French Fifth Republic. It was the second government formed by Édouard Philippe under President Emmanuel Macron, following the 2017 legislative election and the dissolution of the first Philippe government on 19 June 2017.
Marie Tamarelle-Verhaeghe is a French physician and politician who represented the 3rd constituency of the Eure department in the National Assembly from 2017 to 2022. A member of La République En Marche! (LREM), she was elected to Parliament as a member of the Democratic Movement (MoDem).
Géraldine Bannier is a French teacher and politician who has served as Member of the National Assembly for Mayenne's 2nd constituency since 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Movement (MoDem).
Agir, officially Agir, la droite constructive, was a political party in France, established on 26 November 2017. The majority of its founding members were previously associated with the Constructive faction within the centre-right Republicans. Styling itself as a "liberal, social, European, humanist and reformist" party, Agir was founded by a group of 19 established politicians as an alternative to the Republicans. The party merged with Renaissance in 2022.
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.
The 2nd constituency of Vendée is a French legislative constituency in the Vendée département. It elects one MP to the National Assembly of France.
Gilles Boyer is a French politician of the Horizons party. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019 and was re-elected in 2024.
Stéphane Séjourné is a French lawyer and politician of Renaissance who has been serving as Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal since 2024.
Renew Europe (Renew) is a liberal, pro-European political group of the European Parliament founded for the ninth European Parliament term. The group is the successor to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group which existed during the sixth, seventh and eighth terms from 2004 to 2019, and under a variety of other names in earlier Parliaments. Renew Europe in the European Committee of the Regions is the sister group of Renew Europe.
Legislative elections were held in France on 12 and 19 June 2022 to elect the 577 members of the 16th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. The elections took place following the 2022 French presidential election, which was held in April 2022. They have been described as the most indecisive legislative elections since the establishment of the five-year presidential term in 2000 and subsequent change of the electoral calendar in 2002. The governing Ensemble coalition remained the largest bloc in the National Assembly but substantially lost its ruling majority, resulting in the formation of France's first minority government since 1993; for the first time since 1997, the incumbent president of France did not have an absolute majority in Parliament. As no alliance won a majority, it resulted in a hung parliament for the first time since 1988.
Horizons is a centre-right political party in France founded in October 2021 by Édouard Philippe, at the time mayor of Le Havre and former Prime Minister of France.
En Commun is a French environmentalist political party created in 2020 by En Marche MPs Barbara Pompili, Hugues Renson and Jacques Maire.
Frédéric Zgainski is a French politician and member of the MoDem party. He is deputy for the seventh constituency of Gironde, as a substitute for Bérangère Couillard, appointed to the Élisabeth Borne government.
↑ "France's old duopoly is officially dead". UnHerd. 27 April 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022. In first place, on 24% of the vote, is Ensemble Citoyens (Citizens Together) which is the centrist alliance dominated by Macron's party
↑ Bloch, Michel (9 June 2022). "Législatives: voici les quatre scénarios possibles au soir du second tour". Le Journal du dimanche (in French). Retrieved 13 June 2022. C'est sans aucun doute les élections législatives les plus indécises depuis l'instauration du quinquennat et l'inversion du calendrier électoral en 2002. Le premier tour de la présidentielle a révélé la présence de trois blocs dans le pays (un bloc macroniste de centre-droit, un bloc d'extrême-droite et un bloc de gauche).
↑ "Macron coalition, leftwing bloc neck and neck in first round of French elections". France 24. Agence France-Presse. 12 June 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2022. The election 'confirms the fact that Ensemble (Macron's coalition) is now the centre-right,' says Mathieu Doiret of FRANCE 24's polling partners Ipsos, noting that the president's camp now draws most of its support from an elderly, centre-right constituency that previously voted for the mainstream conservative party, Les Républicains. Should Macron's coalition fail to win an outright majority, an alliance with the rump of the Républicains is the most likely outcome, Doiret added. 'We have a centre-right majority because elderly people hold the balance of power, because they vote twice as much as the young,' he said. 'That's why Angela Merkel stayed in power for so long in Germany and why Boris Johnson wins in the UK.'
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