Macron allies urge 2027 coalition to block Le Pen

Two allies of French President Emmanuel Macron urged moderate parties on Monday to unite behind a single candidate for the 2027 presidential election, arguing that a broad coalition is needed to defeat Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.

Clement Beaune, a former Europe minister and now France’s commissioner for strategy and planning, and Philippe Grangeon, a former special adviser, made the call in a joint text published in La Grande Conversation.

“The key idea boils down to one sentence: no one will win or govern alone in 2027,” they wrote.

They said moderate forces on the centre, left and right should build a coalition before the presidential election instead of “improvising one” after the first round. They warned that a crowded field could split moderate voters and leave them outside the run-off.

The appeal came after the far-right Alternative for Germany won the largest share of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt regional elections on Sunday. Beaune wrote on X that Germany showed “the far right is on the threshold of power” and said France could not continue as before.

The proposed coalition could include figures ranging from left-leaning Raphael Glucksmann to right-wing former minister Xavier Bertrand, Beaune and Grangeon said. They did not include the traditional right-wing Republicans party, which they said had moved further right.

They also pointed to divisions inside Macron’s centrist camp, where former prime ministers Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal have put forward rival candidacies.