Paris (France) (AFP) – Édouard Philippe will not participate in a right and center primary. Opposed for months to this method of deciding, the mayor of Le Havre reaffirmed his position on Sunday on TF1, a few days after the proposal launched by his competitor Gabriel Attal, and invited his rivals to take their "responsibilities" in February.

Published on: 01/11/2026 - 1:39 p.m. Modified on: 01/11/2026 - 9:47 p.m.

A “primary of division” and “confusion”: Édouard Philippe on Sunday swept aside the proposal for a “democratic primary” put on the table by Gabriel Attal to avoid a second round between Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

“It’s a primary of division, because the very principle of a primary is to focus on the differences between the candidates. However, I think that we have to create commonality much more than to focus on our divisions,” the former Prime Minister initially affirmed to justify his position.

“And then it is a primary of confusion because it brings together people who are the continuators of macronism for Mr. Attal, and others who extend their hand to the union of the rights,” continued Édouard Philippe, while the question of the perimeter of this primary – how far to the center-left and to the right? - has been stirring debates for several weeks.

The suspense regarding the position of the mayor of Le Havre was low. On Wednesday evening, his party, Horizons, had already rejected the idea of ​​a primary from the other former Prime Minister of Emmanuel Macron.

“It is not this + at the same time + as confusing as it is hazardous which will make it possible to avoid” an RN-LFI duel, had thus castigated the president of the group in the National Assembly, Laurent Marcangeli.

- Final word in February? -

If Édouard Philippe said on TF1 that he was convinced that "this primary will not take place", he did not call on his competitors to get behind him: "Concerning the first round, let those who have things to offer the French do so, they are all legitimate", insisted the former Prime Minister.

For Édouard Philippe, the time to decide between the many declared candidates from the right and the center will come in “February”.

“In February, everyone will take their responsibilities,” predicted the Horizons candidate. “If the French definitely want to move on. Well, listen, I will draw the consequences,” assured Édouard Philippe on TF1.

But the mayor of Le Havre, although favored in the center and right in the polls, has also been in a negative dynamic for several weeks.

“Édouard (Philippe) has started to put himself on the slide, but I’m not sure he feels it,” worried an executive from the central block during the week.

Behind him, the list of contenders is long. Gabriel Attal, Dominique de Villepin, Bruno Retailleau, David Lisnard, Xavier Bertrand: the candidates declared or in the process of being declared are numerous and none seems, according to the polls, able to reach the second round.

The idea formulated by Gabriel Attal, but also pushed by the MoDem, is therefore to bring out a single candidacy from this space, which has become accustomed since 2024 to governing together, via a primary.

During the week, the former Prime Minister LR, Michel Barnier, support of Bruno Retailleau, also pleaded for a primary "from the right and the center".

But among those who defend this method of tie-breaking, disagreements persist over its scope.

Gabriel Attal's initial offer also seemed addressed to Raphaël Glucksmann. But the latter does not intend to participate in a second primary, after that of the Social Democrats which he won.

This weekend, in the Tribune Dimanche, the head of the MoDem deputies, Marc Fesneau, for his part opposed the presence of the mayor of Cannes David Lisnard, accusing him of being an agent of the "union of the rights" and therefore of working towards an alliance with the RN.

The mayor of Cannes, holding a liberal right, defended himself on Sunday and assured that his “approach” was “independent”. He promised that he would govern "neither with the 'macronists' nor with the RN", "this has always been clear and clear".

© 2026 AFP

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