PARIS — The race to lead France’s center right into next year’s presidential election is increasingly turning into a battle between two of Emmanuel Macron’s former prime ministers, both of whom have since turned on the president. Gabriel Attal is touring France to promote his first book, “En homme libre” (“As a free man”). The 37-year-old briefly served as Macron’s prime minister in 2024 before being pushed aside by the French president’s shock move to dissolve parliament and call a snap general election.
Now the leader of Macron’s party, Renaissance, Attal has made no secret of his presidential ambitions. “I believe that I know how France should be presided over,” he told French weekly Le Point last week. Before presiding, however, Attal needs to establish himself in a crowded field of contenders in which he wants to stand out as the centrist candidate best-positioned to take on the far right.
For now, polls suggest another former prime minister holds that position: Édouard Philippe. Philippe was Macron’s prime minister from 2017 to 2020. A poll released last month indicated the center right could make it past the first round of the presidential election and compete against the far-right National Rally if it chooses the 55-year-old conservative lawmaker to be its candidate.
If Attal throws his hat in the ring, polls suggest the centrists could be eliminated in the first round, falling behind both the far right and the left. France’s political center appears too weak to be competitive with two candidates splitting the vote. Both likely presidential hopefuls have at least one point in common: their refusal to be associated with Macron, whose unpopularity has become a liability.
In October, Philippe went full Brutus and called on his former boss to resign after a third French government collapse in under a year. Attal has repeatedly lambasted Macron’s decision to dissolve parliament and call a snap election in 2024 while he was prime minister — one of the root causes of France’s current political instability. It’s a subject to which he devotes an entire section of his book.
“I warned him of the consequences: at best, an ungovernable country; at worst, a majority for the National Rally,” he wrote. Book tours are common practice in French politics, not so much to sell copies as to generate publicity and media appearances. Attal has stopped short of directly attacking his rival, but interviews promoting his book have allowed him to underscore some key differences with Philippe.
On one particularly hot-button issue in France, pensions, Attal described Philippe’s policy proposal — increasing the minimum retirement age to 67 — as being “brutal” and said it would “lead to despair.” Macron’s 2023 move to increase the minimum from 62 to 64 was already widely rejected and led to mass strikes and millions protesting. Meanwhile, Philippe’s supporters argue Attal’s book — which dives into his personal life, including his father’s death and his romantic relationship with European Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné — is short on policy specifics. “It’s Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel — his life, his relationship, his father… (but) what are his values?
What is his vision for France?” said one former government official backing Philippe. Clea Caulcutt contributed to this report.