“Everything must change so that nothing changes”: the formula taken from Visconti's The Leet, often cited indiscriminately, for once perfectly defines the situation at the Luxembourg Palace. After Sunday's senatorial elections, the arrival of an RN group and an elected LFI brings a real novelty to the Upper Assembly. However, Gérard Larcher will be, as usual, a candidate for the presidency of the Senate and, as usual, re-elected, Thursday October 1, during the first session of the new mandate. The LR and centrist senators who support him having retained their majority, this is a formality.
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However, as soon as the vote was over on Sunday, Gérard Larcher began his campaign in the Senate premises, picking up his phone to congratulate the lucky winners of the day with particular attention to the newly elected officials. A hug, a wink, a gesture of affection... We saw Senator LR shake hands with everyone present on site, caring for everyone, including those who are not from his camp.
“A political non-event”
The opposition groups will present a candidate for form, but will accommodate the reappointment of the current president. “His re-election does not pose a problem for us, because he respects the opposition. For us, it is a political non-event,” comments a socialist senator. “We are all aware that things will shake up even more in the coming months. Having someone who embodies a form of stability is not bad,” says Vincent Capo-Canellas, centrist senator from Seine-Saint-Denis.
"He will have a new Senate facing him. It's a challenge."
An opposition senator
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In the so-called conference room, where the deep velvets give an air of quiet solidity to the armchairs, Gérard Larcher seems to be part of the furniture. Immovable. Elected to the Senate for the first time in 1986, he has presided over the institution since 2008, apart from a three-year interruption between 2011 and 2014 when the left was in the majority. But many observers consider that this new mandate will also be his last, even if he has not indicated what he intends to do in three years, during the next elections – he will then be 80 years old.
“It’s a well-kept mystery. He has no interest in revealing himself too soon,” says Vincent Capo-Canellas, who considers that this is not the subject today. “He doesn’t say he’s going to leave, but he lets others say it,” laughs an opposition senator. “The Senate is his whole life, but he will know how to leave,” said an LR elected official. “I find it hard to imagine him doing anything else,” adds, almost incredulously, a minister who has worked with him for a long time. His choice could also depend on the political situation. “If Marine Le Pen is in power and the Senate becomes the only rampart, a sort of Fort Chabrol of the Republic, he can return there,” judges the communist Pierre Ouzoulias, senator from Hauts-de-Seine.
“He also knows how to bang his fist on the table”
If comedians readily caricature him as an ogre who loves feasts and good food, Gérard Larcher is unanimously respected by his colleagues. “He is a president who is the defender of the institution and respectful of the difference in political sensitivities,” judges Xavier Iacovelli, Renaissance senator for Hauts-de-Seine. “He has a caring attention to minority groups, he gives them additional resources,” testifies Pierre Ouzoulias. “He responds very easily to my SMS,” continues the communist vice-president of the Senate. “He’s someone with whom it’s not embarrassing to have differences,” summarizes Vincent Capo-Canellas.
Difficult to find a very critical opinion on the President of the Senate. A suspicious unanimity? “Come on, he has the fault of all politicians. He is capable of saying everything and its opposite to everyone to preserve a middle path,” says an opposition senator. Even in the RN, we find certain qualities in him even though he is a fierce opponent. “In 2023, he hosted us for lunch with all the newly elected senators,” says Aymeric Durox, one of the three senators from Jordan Bardella’s party during the 2023-2026 period, elected in Seine-et-Marne. “When he is in the Senate, he is good-natured, but during the campaign, he still shoots us with all his might,” he continues.
Good-natured, the adjective comes up often… and annoys LR senator from Paris Marie-Claire Carrère-Gée. “That means naive and a little weak. However, if it is certain that he is a man of dialogue, he has authority and very firm convictions,” she judges. This good hunter who looks like Philippe Noiret brings out his old rifle when he needs it. “He knows how to make himself heard when he wants. He also knows how to bang his fist on the table,” comments Xavier Iacovelli. “What he can’t stand are senators who spit in the soup,” says another elected official.
“He is a lover of the parliamentary function”
Emmanuel Macron was regularly the target of the anger of Gérard Larcher, who quickly took on the role of representative of the old political world in the face of the "disruption" claimed in 2017 by the new head of state. The parliamentary commission on the Benalla affair in 2018 symbolized the confrontation between the first and third figures of the State. “It allowed the Senate to prevail against Emmanuel Macron,” judges a socialist elected official. “He has a moral influence on the younger ministers, who are impressed by his experience. This way he manages to be respected,” analyzes RN Aymeric Durox.
The Senate has benefited from the agitation that has reigned at the Palais Bourbon since 2022. "It must be understood that the Senate, for 150 years, has been obliged to prove the necessity of its existence in the face of recurring demands for its disappearance", recalls Pierre Ouzoulias, professional historian. "Gérard Larcher is in this line. He pleads for a peaceful climate which no longer exists in the National Assembly. The ability to respect oneself guarantees the quality of the substance of the debates. It is a deep conviction of his."
Can this climate continue with the arrival of an RN group which risks splitting the Palais du Luxembourg? Even before his re-election, Gérard Larcher made a point of recalling his rules on Sunday, once the results were known, wishing that the Senate remains "the assembly of peaceful debate, reason and reflection". “He is a lover of the parliamentary function,” summarizes Marie-Claire Carrère-Gée.
Gérard Larcher is now expected on the presidential campaign trail. Faced with the possibility of a second round between Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, can he convince Edouard Philippe, Gabriel Attal and Bruno Retailleau to unite? “Everyone is counting on him,” judges Marie-Claire Carrère-Gée. “There are not many figures respected by everyone. He can have a role to play and he will have to play this role,” she continues.
“He is the only one capable of convincing Bruno Retailleau to stop and get behind us.”
A minister supporting Edouard Philippe for 2027
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Those close to the LR candidate in the presidential election recall that Gérard Larcher was present in the front row of Bruno Retailleau's two start-of-campaign meetings. According to them, Gérard Larcher's "unifying" remarks can be explained by his desire to reassure the centrists during his campaign for the presidency of the Senate. But they are betting it will be different once the election is over. “Do you think that Gérard Larcher is a big fan of the ten years of macronism that we have just experienced?” quips an advisor to the Vendée senator.
In an interview with Le Parisien on September 2, Gérard Larcher arranged to meet the three candidates from the center and the right in January to find a solution and avoid the multiplicity of applications. Last spring, he set October as the horizon for this gathering. For a member of the government, he is trying to gain time to escape. “He tends not to really take sides. He never takes a position that is too firm,” she snaps, implicitly regretting a lack of courage. And to recall that during the fratricidal war on the right for the 1995 presidential election, Gérard Larcher chaired the support committee for Edouard Balladur in his town of Rambouillet, when his wife, Christine Weiss, was at the head of that of Jacques Chirac.
