“Together citizens!” : the return of good old-fashioned politics

Nicolas Beytout 7:59 am, November 30, 2021

French policy has since last night a new movement: it is called "Together citizens!". 

A bizarre name, this “Citizen Ensemble!”, With an exclamation point and an “s” for citizens, which, in good French, means absolutely nothing. But now, the name of this political movement had to contain a unifying word (together), that it had a republican sen (citizens) and an exclamation point as for En Marche !.

Yes, because this Citizen Ensemble !, it is the new electoral war machine of the parties, large, small and tiny, which support the re-election of Emmanuel Macron.

We will find there the members of La République en Marche, flanked on their right by the new party of Edouard Philippe (Horizons, with an s, they definitely have funny names in this political family).

There will also be in the center right the people of Agir, in the center-center the Modem, and in the center left the members of Territoires de Progrès while waiting possibly, a little further to the left, for the micro-structure called En Commun, created by Barbara Pompili.

And it's all supposed to be a movement.

You say "a movement", and why not a party?

Because, as Magritte would say, this is not a political party.

It sounds like it, but it will be much more gaseous: for example, there should be no direct members, no activists from this one structure.

Belonging to Together Citizens!

will go through registration with the political parties that will make up this thing.

And this thing, what purpose will it have?

The next legislative. All this small world is placed in the hypothesis where, Emmanuel Macron having a strong chance of being reelected, it is then that everything will be played out, during the legislative elections, in June. This is when the re-elected president will know whether or not he has a majority to rule. So far, historically, all elected Presidents have succeeded in sending, in the process, a strong majority of deputies to the Assembly. This is how Emmanuel Macron, after his victory in 2017, was able to elect an absolute majority of candidates, many of whom are unknown, sometimes totally inexperienced in politics. The problem is that this majority has left feathers in the journey of the current five-year term. Macronians of pure obedience are now in the minority in the Assembly,and they must deal with the elected MoDem of the shadowy François Bayrou, as well as with the right and left wings of La République en Marche. It couldn't take any longer. And the risk was to see all this small world represent themselves in dispersed order in the legislative elections. After having been a winning machine, La République en Marche could become a losing machine. Hence the birth of "Together citizens!".

But if it is not a party, does that mean that the parties that will make up this "thing" will continue to exist?

That's it. And that's the limit of the exercise. Because, of course, the politicians who have already started to take their autonomy vis-à-vis LReM have no intention of giving it up at all. This is the case in particular with Edouard Philippe, and his new party. If the former Prime Minister has publicly supported the candidacy of Emmanuel Macron for a second term, he intends to work on his behalf in the years to come. François Bayrou, for his part, wants to maintain his influence over the majority and is very wary of all internal competition, in particular that of Edouard Philippe. It will take all the talent of this old politician who is Richard Ferrand, the President of the National Assembly and co-builder of "Together citizens!"to make this unidentified political object live and survive (other than on paper).