"LREM was content to be an electoral machine to win in 2017"

Pierre Person left LREM with a bang -

• This Monday, Pierre Person, number 2 of LREM, resigned, justifying his choice by the desire to “create an electroshock” in a party “without new ideas”.

• If we add to that new election results at half mast this Sunday, and the week does not seem to start off auspiciously.

• For Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, political communication teacher at Sciences Po, LREM is paying for its abandonment by Emmanuel Macron, who wanted an electoral machine much more than a party.

With a crash, Pierre Person resigned from his duties as number 2 of La République en Marche on Monday.

The number 2 of the party explained his resignation by the desire "to create an electroshock" in a party which, according to him, is no longer moving forward, victim "of an organization folded in on itself" and unable "to produce ideas news ".

Criticisms that resonate all the more harshly for the party that this Sunday, the partial legislative elections were a new electoral setback for LREM, which has chained failures at the polls for a few months.

For Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, professor of political communication at Sciences Po, the party seems to be content with carrying Emmanuel Macron, without finding a new identity.

Three years after its creation, Has La République en Marche remained the party of one man?

There is this impression that LREM was content to be an electoral machine to elect Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and that since then, the party has no existence outside this mission and this temporality.

We had seen such electoral machines in the United States, which only live for an election, but this is the first time that we have found such an empty shell that has only served to raise funds in France.

It is completely new and atypical in our nation, which is a very political country.

For those looking for meaning and deep convictions in politics, this is not suitable.

The resignation of Pierre Person, and especially the poor results over the elections, show that this choice also has its limits?

It is indeed not a very tenable process over time, because it does not correspond to our political culture.

This worked in 2017 for two reasons, the impression of being anchored in civil society, and the feeling of a selection of elites "different" from other parties, with candidates chosen in business mode, almost by CV, this which corresponded to the way of the French to recruit themselves and which gave an impression of normalization.

But the limit of the exercise is that Emmanuel Macron never intended to do anything LREM once elected.

He is convinced that his policy is played out at the Elysee and only at the Elysee, and that he basically does not need a party, or even a government or a parliament.

For him, a president is enough.

For LREM, it is therefore three years of power lost, without local establishment, without media work.

It is a very astonishing choice of Emmanuel Macron, this total abandonment of the party he created.

He seems convinced that when the time comes, he will be able to rebuild from scratch another electoral machine that better corresponds to the moment and the stakes of the election, probably more to the right given its current turn.

I think he said to himself that he does not want to have a ball in his paw to hang around for 2022, he saw how a party could also be deadly with the worst possible example, the PS.

Despite all the criticisms made against traditional political parties, is this not currently lacking in Emmanuel Macron?

A more alive and more embodied party would have been very useful to him.

It is a mistake to stop at the illusion that the French are opposed to parties, while voters seek deep meaning in politics and contact on the ground.

This lack of establishment plays a lot in the inaccessible side of his policy and the feeling of lack of humanity, the French are ultimately never in contact with the policy of Emmanuel Macron except for pre-recorded televised speeches, but we have seen better as field contact ...

Can we speak of a political error?

The choice not to have bet more on the party seems to me to be a choice by inexperience that backfires.

On the contrary, this party in which he was so afraid of locking himself up would have given him much more flexibility, in particular by better absorbing his turn to the right.

With a stronger and more solid party, he could have limited the hemorrhage of talents and deputies that these political changes cost him each time.

Nothing beats a strong party to accompany the blows of power.

In addition, in order not to suffer too much disenchantment and disinterest, its policy relies heavily on the Modem, the only real ally which has a strong presence and local ties.

It is the paradox of Emmanuel Macron's choice, wanting not to be locked into his party made him even more dependent on a party that is not even his.

Make no mistake, 2017 was also won by significant fieldwork on the part of LREM.

It was not at all a disembodied campaign based only on the speeches of Emmanuel Macron.

At the time, the future president counted and bet a lot rightly on the ground.

It is surprising to have subsequently made the choice to cut himself off from it, and above all it looks like an error worthy of a certain political immaturity.

It should not be believed that Emmanuel Macron is the only one with enough political ambition and power to want to emancipate himself from a party, this is probably the case for all the candidates, and even other politicians.

But the others know the importance of the field and of having a base.

It was a unique experience in France, and probably the last, because we can see that it does not work in the long term.

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