Bruno Retailleau believes that "it will take a primary" to decide between the four main candidates from the right and the center in the presidential election

Who will be the right and center candidate in the 2027 presidential election? “I think that as things are shaping up, a primary will probably be needed at the start of the year,” said Les Républicains party candidate Bruno Retailleau on Tuesday, November 3, guest of BFMTV.

Rallying to the call launched by the candidate of Nouvelles Energies, David Lisnard, in the spring and taken up at the end of October by Gabriel Attal, candidate of Renaissance, the former Minister of the Interior assured that Edouard Philippe, who reiterated on Sunday his refusal of a primary, "will be forced at one time or another to accept it".

“Either we are decided by a democratic vote, or I will go to the end,” warned the LR candidate. Until now, he assured that he was not opposed to a primary, but that it could not take place due to the refusal to participate of the candidate Horizons, the best placed in the polls.

“I imagined that the polls could decide between us. That’s not the way to go,” added the Vendée senator on BFMTV. In the Ifop poll for LCI published Tuesday, "we are all below 10%", so that none of the four candidates in the running manages to avoid a second round between Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he recalled.

“We need substantive (...) debates”

"We need debates where we can get to the bottom and to get to the bottom, it's difficult to be more than four", added Bruno Retailleau, excluding a possible participation of Raphaël Glucksmann, the winner of the left primary, on the grounds that "we are not going to do 'at the same time'".

Pending Edouard Philippe's decision, Bruno Retailleau proposes to move forward by organizing between now and the end of the year three debates "on three different channels" devoted respectively to purchasing power, government and ecology. “In the meantime, because I can see that Edouard Philippe does not want it, at least we enlighten the French and organize these debates so that they see our differences,” said the head of the Republicans.