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.
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
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]
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 senatorHugues 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]
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]
Roger Karoutchi, senator for Hauts-de-Seine; considered candidacy before renouncing and announcing sponsorship of Wauquiez's candidacy on 28 September[38]
Valérie Pécresse, president of the regional council of Île-de-France; announced that she would not run on 9 July[39]
Julien Aubert, deputy for Vaucluse's 5th constituency; declared candidacy on 3 September,[41] but renounced on 11 October after failing to secure enough sponsorships (claimed 13 parliamentarians and 2,211 adherents)[42]
Laurence Sailliet, member of the political bureau of the party; declared candidacy on 9 July,[43] but renounced on 9 October after failing to secure enough sponsorships (claimed 14 parliamentarians and 1,800 adherents)[44]
Opinion polling
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.
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]
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