Former Prime Minister Philippe founded the new party "Horizon"

Former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe founded a new party on October 9 to support Macron's re-election and to expand the latter's base among right-wing voters. But the move also sparked unease among some in the ruling party.

The New Party supports Macron's re-election

According to Agence France-Presse, Philippe founded a new party called Horizons. He explained that the name was chosen because "we have to see far away" and "we want to define a strategy for France." Philippe said the party's positioning was to "take a step ahead", to pursue the logic of "cooperation" and "convergence", and that the political line tended to be "calm" rather than "fanatical".

Philippe said the party's clear line was to "support the President of the Republic" in order to re-elect Macron and make his second term productive. In response to suspicions that he wants to fight, Philippe said he wants the New Party to join Macron, but demands that it be treated on an equal footing with the Republican Forward Party (LREM) and the Democratic Movement (MoDem).

The leaders of the three parliamentary groups in the majority camp in the National Assembly, Christophe Castaner (LREM) of the Republican Forward Party, Olivier Becht of Agir, and Patrick Mignola of the Democracy Movement, attended the inauguration of Horizon that day. Also attending the ceremony were 160 mayors, 600 locally elected representatives and about 60 members of the chambers of the two chambers across France.

In his nearly two-hour speech, Philippe mentioned that France would have to face "four extremely large and important transformations" – demographic, environmental, geopolitical and technological – that must be met with "coherence" and "consistency".

He also called for "straightening out our accounts and streets" and spent a long time explaining why the retirement age should be raised to 65, 66, 67.

Previously, some observers believed that Philip's move was intended to take advantage of the lack of a leader in the center-right Republican Party and the inability to propose a unified candidate to further divide the traditional right-wing camp. He himself said macron would have to "broaden the electoral base" if he wanted to be re-elected.

The leader of the Action group, Betsy, also said that some members of the new party's "horizon" are from the Republican Party and another center-right party, the "Independent Democratic Union" (UDI), but share the values embodied in the "horizon", and if Philippe can win these people, it will have positive significance for expanding the presidential majority camp and ensuring Macron's re-election.

According to Agence France-Presse, the charter of "Horizon", which is a charter composed of 20 principles, mainly includes "the pursuit of national transformation", "order", "social justice" and "European planning", etc., it also emphasizes the fight against "extremism of all kinds", "enemies of the separation of church and state", "supporters of de-growth" and "naïve and populist on the issue of immigration".

On the left wing of the presidential majority, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, a small party Territoires de progrès, which was previously launched in early 2020, also met in Bordeaux on October 9. Budget Minister Olivier Dussopt took over as chairman of the small party.

Candidates may be brewing in more than 80 constituencies

In the presidential majority camp, there is no shortage of skepticism about the new party of Horizon. In early October, in an interview with the media, Philippe publicly criticized France's debt management and the possible postponement of pension reform, which seemed to have revealed "clues". "This is very bad for Macron," an Elysee official said in a recent interview with BFMTV.

According to La Dépêche du Midi, Philippe and his new party are interested in coveting more than 80 constituencies, where outgoing Macron mps do not have the upper hand. If Horizon wants to win some of the parliamentary elections, then some Of the Republican Forward mps must give up their positions.

But some say the formation of the new party is not a good thing for Macron to continue to dismantle the right.

In French political life, the new party was founded to form a parliamentary caucus by nominating candidates in parliamentary elections, and uniting a group of powerful local councillors, which could lay a solid foundation for participation in the presidential election and the ability to formulate a clear electoral strategy, which was directly inspired by Chirac. In 1976, Chirac resigned as prime minister and founded his own right-wing party, the Union for the Defence of the Republic (RPR). Two years after its founding, the party became the second largest group in the National Assembly in 1978. Observers believe that Philippe set up "Horizon" to prepare for the 2027 presidential election.

(Editor: Summer Rain)