PARIS — French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau won the race to become the next leader of the country’s main conservative party, Les Républicains, further raising his profile ahead of a possible presidential run two years from now.
Retailleau, a staunch conservative likely to push the party further to the right, has seen his popularity skyrocket since joining the government in September and was widely expected to unseat current Les Républicains leader Laurent Wauquiez, who was running for reelection.
Retailleau obtained upwards of 74 percent of votes, according to the party’s official figures.
Les Républicains and its ideological predecessors dominated French politics for decades, with former presidents like Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy among its ranks. But the conservative force fell into political purgatory after President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 election upended the country’s political balance.
The party has since endured a series of electoral defeats but made an unexpected return to government last September by allying with pro-Macron parties to form a minority government. That move brought Retailleau, 64, into the Cabinet for the first time.
The party is now jockeying to reclaim right-wing voters in a potentially wide-open 2027 presidential race without Macron — who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term — and possibly without far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose legal troubles could derail her candidacy.
An IFOP poll of 9,128 voters conducted last month showed Retailleau winning around 10 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election — a major improvement over Les Républicains’ previous candidate, Valérie Pécresse, but still well short of what it would take to advance to the runoff.
During the internal campaign, Retailleau was criticized for seeking to lead the party while holding a Cabinet position — a dual role Wauquiez argued would prevent him from effectively challenging the president and government.
Retailleau countered by emphasizing that he does not align with Macron and claimed the president’s political project would fade after his departure — a statement that sparked frustration among pro-Macron officials, who spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity .
Despite the tensions, government spokesperson Sophie Primas — a member of Les Républicains and a Retailleau supporter — insisted on Thursday that the interior minister planned to stay on even if he won the party leadership.
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