The political party of French President Emmanuel Macron, La Republique en marche (LREM) has officially changed its name to “Renaissance” on Saturday.
During an address to party militants who have gathered at the Louvre in Paris to mark the shift, Macron said that, “We need today and tomorrow to continue the formidable political adventure of overcoming started in 2016.”
“We have been able to reconcile so many women and men who until then did not work together, and it is united and gathered together that we are going to open a new chapter in the political life of our country…They will lose together if the progressive forces do not move forward together.”
After two days of votes over new party rules, it is now a merger between the President’s party, Territoires de progres, and Agir. Likeminded parties, MoDem and Horizon, opted to remain separate while bolstering the President’s party.
Renaissance was created by Renew Europe Group President Stephane Sejourne from the EU parliament. Renaissance is likely to first consider its successes as well as failures from recent elections, with a view to strategising for the European Parliamentary elections in 2021, as per local media reports.
In the long term, the party will need to define what Macronism means as well as finding a candidate to replace Macron in the 2027 presidential election.
The movement of Macron was created a year before he came to power in 2017 and also served his re-election in 2022. However, Macron cannot stay in office for a third term so the party needs to reinvent itself. The query is whether it can continue without its founder eventually.
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