Supporters of centrist former PMs Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal fear they are fighting each other more than the far right and far left.
PARIS — Senior representatives for France’s feuding centrist presidential candidates are sitting down for lunch Wednesday to figure out who is best placed to take on Marine Le Pen in the spring 2027 election race to replace Emmanuel Macron.
But a compromise that could save the political center from being crushed by the extremes doesn’t look like it’s on the menu.
Supporters of Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe, two of Macron’s former prime ministers courting similar voters, are growing increasingly anxious that the duo’s internecine duel will drag on so long that it will damage the centrist camp’s chances.
Without a strong candidate from the center, their fear is that the election will slide inexorably into a clash between two anti-NATO euroskeptics who frighten financial markets: Le Pen on the far right and Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the far left.
The presidential election goes to a runoff if no one secures more than 50 percent of the vote. Le Pen appears all but certain to nab one of those spots given her polling numbers, but Mélenchon’s strong start to the campaign means he could well score ahead of Philippe and secure a spot in the second round.
Playing the long game
Despite the pressure to find a real challenger to Le Pen, the squabbling centrists hardly appear in a hurry to resolve their differences.
Attal, who trails Philippe in the polls, has in recent days tried to frame Philippe as out of touch. Asked about the remarks, Philippe responded that candidates sharing the center ground should direct their attacks against the extremes.
Attal’s campaign director Franck Riester told a small group of reporters Tuesday he doesn’t expect a resolution before February. Philippe said in an interview Tuesday he didn’t think a single candidate would emerge before next year.
Instead, Wednesday’s lunch — the latest in a series of regular parleys among the centrists — will be a moment to “air grievances,” according to Riester.
“We will continue to discuss the campaign, ways to avoid inflicting irreparable damage [on each other], and agree on a code of conduct,” he said.
Attal and his advisers started organizing the meetings in the spring, after Philippe launched his campaign but before Attal’s announcement, to ensure the centrist bloc remained united. But the encounters have been marred by disagreements over how to rally around a single champion.
A lawmaker from Philippe’s party, Horizons, concurred that Tuesday’s meeting would not lead to a breakthrough.
“We are going because we are polite but we’ve never believed in it,” said the MP, who was, like others quoted in this story, granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Ruinous infighting
While polls suggest Philippe is among the best-placed candidates to mount a serious challenge to Le Pen, the plethora of hopefuls in the political center is allowing the two anti-establishment candidates to dominate the public discourse on everything from banning the hijab to writing off massive chunks of French debt.
One former centrist minister said that “internal competition” between Philippe and Attal, who are the closest ideologically, could end up destroying a centrist bloc that already faces an uphill battle given voter dissatisfaction with Macron’s presidency.
“The risk is that the winner ends up ruling over a wasteland,” said the former minister.
Given the increasing difficulties in reaching an agreement with Attal’s camp, some Philippe supporters are hoping for an alliance with the once-dominant conservative Les Républicains, which Philippe once belonged to. The party’s candidate, Bruno Retailleau, is trailing Attal and Philippe in the polls.
But an alliance there too seems elusive. Retailleau last week said he would keep on campaigning “until victory.”
In any case, he wasn’t even invited to the lunch.
Sarah Paillou contributed reporting.