2027 presidential election: Retailleau believes that “a primary will probably be needed at the start of the year”

Three debates between now and the end of the year to confront the candidates from the right and the center: this is the proposal defended Tuesday evening on BFMTV by Bruno Retailleau. The Republican presidential candidate wants meetings “on three different channels”, devoted to purchasing power, government and ecology, pending an agreement on a primary.

The Vendée senator now considers this vote necessary "probably at the start of the year", joining the call launched in the spring by David Lisnard and taken up last week by Gabriel Attal. “I imagined that the polls could decide between us. It’s not going to be that,” he explained. According to his reading of an Ifop poll for LCI published Tuesday, the four candidates remain below 10% and none manages to avoid a second round between Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Edouard Philippe, who reaffirmed his refusal of a primary on Sunday, “will be forced at one point or another to accept it,” assured Bruno Retailleau. The leader of the Republicans posed his alternative: “Either we are decided by a democratic vote, or I will go to the end”.

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Bruno Retailleau wishes to limit this primary to the four candidates already declared: Edouard Philippe, Gabriel Attal, David Lisnard and himself. “We need debates where we can get to the bottom and to get to the bottom, it’s difficult to be more than four,” he argued, ruling out the participation of Raphaël Glucksmann, winner of the left-wing primary.