Renaissance | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | RE |
| General Secretary | Gabriel Attal |
| Honorary President | Emmanuel Macron |
| Leader in theNational Assembly | Gabriel Attal |
| Leader in theSenate | François Patriat |
| Founder | Emmanuel Macron |
| Founded | 6 April 2016; 9 years ago (2016-04-06) 17 September 2022; 3 years ago (2022-09-17) (as Renaissance) |
| Split from | Socialist Party The Republicans |
| Headquarters | 68, Rue du Rocher 75008Paris |
| Youth wing | Les Jeunes en marche |
| Membership(June 2025) |  33,154[1] |
| Ideology | Liberalism (French) |
| Political position | Centre tocentre-right[A] |
| National affiliation | Ensemble |
| European Parliament group | Renew Europe[2] |
| Colours |
|
| National Assembly | 87 / 577 |
| Senate | 14 / 348 |
| European Parliament | 5 / 81 |
| Presidency of departmental councils | 2 / 95 |
| Presidency of regional councils | 1 / 17 |
| Website | |
| parti-renaissance.fr | |
^ A: Along with centre-right,[9] the party has also been described asradical centrist,[16]right-wing,[21] or abig tent/catch-all party.[25] | |
Renaissance (RE) is apolitical party inFrance that is typically described asliberal andcentrist[28] orcentre-right.[29] The party was originally known asEn Marche ! (EM)[a][30] and laterLa République En Marche ! (transl. The Republic on the Move,[31][32][33]LREM,LaREM orREM), before adopting its current name in September 2022.[34] RE is the leading force of the centristEnsemble coalition, coalesced aroundEmmanuel Macron's originalpresidential majority.
The party was established on 6 April 2016 by Macron, a formerMinister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, who was later elected president in the2017 presidential election with 66.1% of the second-round vote. Subsequently, the party ran candidates in the2017 legislative election,[35] including dissidents from theSocialist Party (PS) and theRepublicans (LR), as well as minor parties, winning an absolute majority in theNational Assembly. Macron was re-elected in the2022 presidential election, but the party lost its absolute majority in the2022 legislative election.
Macron conceived RE as aprogressive movement, uniting bothleft andright.[36] RE supportspro-Europeanism[37][36][38] andglobalization and wants to "modernise and moralise" French politics.[39][40][41] The party has accepted members from other political parties at a higher rate than other parties in France,[37][42][43] and does not impose any fees on members who want to join.[44] The party has been a founding member ofRenew Europe, thepolitical group of the European Parliament representing liberals and centrists, since June 2019.[2]
La Gauche Libre, the think tank for the movement, was declared as an organization on 1 March 2015.[45] Afterwards, lesjeunesavecmacron.fr was registered as a domain on 23 June 2015.[46] Eventually, two Facebook pages[47][non-primary source needed][48][non-primary source needed] were created and an extra domain registered.[49] Another organization was eventually created by Macron, declared as L'Association pour le renouvellement de la vie politique[50] and registered as a micro-party in January 2016.[51] This was following en-marche.fr being claimed as a domain.[52] L'Association pour le renouvellement de la vie politique was then registered as EMA EN MARCHE in March 2016.[39]
En Marche! was established on 6 April 2016 inAmiens by Emmanuel Macron, then aged 38,[42] with the help of political advisorIsmaël Emelien.[53] The initials of the name of the party are the same as the initials of Macron's name.[54][44]
The announcement of En Marche! was the first indication by Macron that he was planning to run forPresident,[55] with Macron using En Marche! to fundraise for the potential presidential run.[56] The launch of the party was widely covered throughout the media[57] and media coverage continued to peak as tensions rose among Macron and other government ministers as his loyalty was questioned.[58] In the weeks following the creation of En Marche!, Macron soared in the opinion polls, coming to be seen as the main competitor on the left.[59][60]
The creation of En Marche! was welcomed by several political figures includingNajat Vallaud-Belkacem,[61]Jean-Pierre Raffarin[62] andPierre Gattaz,[63] although it was also criticised byJean-Luc Mélenchon[64] andChristian Estrosi.
In an attempt to create the party's first campaign platform, Macron and head of operationsLudovic Chaker[65] recruited 4,000 volunteers[66] to conduct door-to-door surveys of 100,000 people, using the information gained to create a programme closer to the French electorate.[67]
Later that year,[68] Chaker structured the movement and became the first general secretary of Emmanuel Macron's party En Marche! and its first official employee.[68] He was then appointed as deputy general secretary and coordinator of Macron's campaign operations for the2017 French presidential election.[69]
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La République En Marche! ran candidates in most constituencies. At least half its candidates came from civil society,[70] the other half having previously held political office and half were women. Candidates could not be selected for more than one constituency.[71] In addition to those parameters, Macron specified in his initial press conference on 19 January that he would require that candidates demonstrate probity (disqualifying any prospective candidates with acriminal record), political plurality (representing the threads of the movement) and efficacy. Those wishing to seek the endorsement of LREM had to sign up online[72] and the movement received nearly 15,000 applications.
When dealing with nominations sought by those in the political world, the party considered the popularity, establishment and media skills of applicants, with the most difficult cases adjudicated by Macron himself. To present themselves under the label of La République En Marche!, outgoing deputies had to leave theSocialist Party (PS) or theRepublicans (LR).[73] Macron previously said the legislative candidates would have to leave the PS before they could join LREM, though on 5 May 2017 Macron waived this requirement.[71][74] However, then-spokesperson of LREMChristophe Castaner later said they could stay in the PS as long as they supported Macron.[74] Moreover, spokespersonJean-Paul Delevoye said the members of civil society could be mayors or members ofregional councils anddepartmental councils.[74]
AfterFrançois Bayrou endorsed Macron in February, theDemocratic Movement (MoDem), which he leads, reserved 90 constituencies for MoDem candidates (running under the label of La République En Marche!), of which 50 were reported byLe Figaro to be winnable.[75]
On 15 May 2017, the secretary general of the presidency announced the appointment ofÉdouard Philippe, a member of LR, asPrime Minister.[76]
On 18 June 2017, La République En Marche! won an absolute majority in theNational Assembly, securing 308 seats (or 53% of the seats) while collecting only 28.21% of the vote on the first round, and 43.06% on the second round. Additionally, MoDem secured 42 seats. LREM became France'sparty of power, in support of the President.
In the2017 Senate election, La République En Marche! lost seats, ending up with 21, seven fewer than before.[77] While hoping to double its representatives in the Senate,[78] party officials noted that due to the electoral system of indirect universal suffrage, where deputies, senators and regional councilors elect senators, the party had a disadvantage due to being new.[79]
In the same month, it was announced that the first party congress was to be held inLyon. The first gathering of party members and representatives, party spokesman,Christophe Castaner announced his candidacy on 25 October 2017 with the endorsement of President Macron, allowing him to run unopposed.[80] The congress took place on the 19 November 2017 and Castaner was elected the Executive Officer and leader[81] of the party by a council of 800 people, with a quarter being members of the party.[82][83] Castaner was elected for a term of three years.[84] The congress generated media attention for criticism surrounding it, including a walk-out by attendees of the congress where a hundred attendees resigned from the party citing a lack of internal democracy and corruption.[85]
The first by-election of the 15th National Assembly of France in Val-d'Oise's 1st constituency, which was a La République En Marche! seat, was called after it was ruled that deputyIsabelle Muller-Quoy's replacement Michel Alexeef was ineligible under the electoral code.[86] Muller-Quoy, who had won the first round by 18 percentage points in 2017, won the first round of the by-election by only 5 percentage points, and went on to lose the seat to the LR candidateAntoine Savignat.[87] The race was the first loss the party had endured in the National Assembly.[88] Several subsequent by-elections showed a 10% overall swing against La République En Marche! since the June 2017 legislative elections.
Ahead of the2019 European Parliament election, La République En Marche! was widely expected to formalise a cooperation agreement with theAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the main liberal-centrist group in the European Parliament.[89] However, amid the domestic upheaval caused by theGilets Jaunes protests and the broader rise of nationalist and populist forces across Europe, PresidentEmmanuel Macron recalibrated his strategy. Rather than aligning LREM directly with the existing ALDE brand, Macron chose to lead a more autonomous, pro-European campaign under the banner ofRenaissance, framing it as a call for continental political renewal.[90]
Following the election—during which the Renaissance list secured a strong second-place finish in France—LREM and its allies played a central role in the reorganisation of the ALDE parliamentary group. This process culminated in the launch of a new centrist and liberal alliance:Renew Europe, officially formed in June 2019. The group brought together Macron's Renaissance list, ALDE-affiliated parties, and other like-minded liberal and pro-European movements from across the European Union, making Renew Europe the third-largest political group in the European Parliament.[91]
For the2020 French municipal elections, La République En Marche! (LREM) set itself the ambitious objective of electing around 10,000 municipal councillors nationwide. Following the first round, party officials reported having already secured approximately 6,000 seats, mainly in small towns and rural communes.[92] The party invested 592 lead candidates (têtes de liste) in municipalities with more than 9,000 inhabitants, of whom 289 were official LREM members.[citation needed]
Between the two rounds, LREM pursued a strategy of forging local alliances—76 with right-leaning lists and 33 with left-leaning ones—in towns over 9,000 residents.[citation needed] In several large cities, such asBordeaux,Strasbourg, andTours, the party aligned with centre-right incumbents to counter rising ecological or left-wing lists. According to party leadership, this skew toward the right was largely due to the political landscape inherited from the 2014 municipal elections, where the right had made significant gains.Marie Guévenoux, co-president of LREM's national investiture commission, justified the imbalance by saying that the party would have "preferred to forge alliances with the left," but left-wing groups generally declined to cooperate.[citation needed]
Despite the party's confident outlook following previous successes in the 2017 legislative and 2019 European elections, LREM ultimately failed to win any major city. It claimed 146 mayors invested or supported in municipalities with more than 9,000 inhabitants, and only three municipalities over 30,000 residents—all of which were victories by right-wing incumbents supported (but not officially labeled) by LREM.[92]
In key symbolic cities such asParis andLyon, where the party had invested heavily, its candidates suffered heavy defeats, often finishing in third or fourth place.[citation needed] InBordeaux, an alliance with the outgoing right-wing mayor failed to block a surge by the ecologists. Across the country, a “green wave” led byEELV swept through major urban centres, including Lyon, Strasbourg, and Bordeaux, dashing LREM's hopes of a metropolitan breakthrough.[93][94]
The campaign also reflected deeper political tensions facing LREM. In many constituencies, candidates avoided displaying the party's logo due to widespread public dissatisfaction stemming from theYellow vests movement, ongoing pension reform protests, youth-ledclimate strikes, and criticism over the government's handling of theCOVID-19 pandemic.[95]
In May 2022, following Emmanuel Macron's re-election as President of France, La République En Marche! announced a major rebranding effort as part of preparations for the legislative elections. The party declared that its parliamentary group would adopt the nameRenaissance, a term intended to symbolise political renewal and the continuation of Macron's reformist agenda.[96][97] This move coincided with the creation of a broader electoral confederation uniting Macron-aligned forces, including François Bayrou's MoDem and Édouard Philippe'sHorizons.
In September 2022, LREM formally changed its name toRenaissance, establishing it as the new identity of the party itself and not just the parliamentary group.[34] The name change was part of an effort to consolidate the presidential majority into a single political force, in line with Macron's long-standing goal of transcending the traditional left-right divide ("dépassement"). However, this ambition met with limited success. While two smaller Macron-aligned parties—Agir andTerritories of Progress—formally merged into Renaissance, key allies such as MoDem and Horizons opted to retain their independence within the wider Ensemble coalition.[98]
Following a poor result in the European Parliament elections, Macron announced the dissolution of the National Assembly on 9 June 2024, triggering snap elections scheduled for 30 June and 7 July 2024.[99] Renaissance led the centrist coalition known asEnsemble pour la République, which included MoDem, Horizons, UDI, and the Radical Party. However, internal tensions quickly arose, particularly with Édouard Philippe's Horizons party, which refused to fully campaign under the Renaissance banner and demanded more autonomy, leading to separate candidate declarations in several constituencies.[100]
Renaissance invested more than 200 candidates, including several ministers (such as Gabriel Attal, Gérald Darmanin), former ministers (Élisabeth Borne,Olivier Véran), and new faces like Stéphane Séjourné and Loïc Signor.[101] In the first round on 30 June, the Ensemble coalition obtained only around 21% of the vote, trailing both the Rassemblement National (33.1%) and the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (28%).[102] Only four Ensemble candidates were elected outright, and Renaissance was leading in just 70 constituencies before the run-off.[103]
In the second round, held on 7 July 2024, no single bloc obtained a majority. The left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire became the largest force with approximately 182 seats, followed by Ensemble with around 163 seats, and the Rassemblement National with about 143.[104] Renaissance alone dropped from 245 seats in 2022 to about 160–162, according to projections.[105] The outcome prompted a political crisis within the centrist bloc. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal convened an emergency meeting to coordinate second-round endorsements and later was elected president of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly on 13 July.[106]
Following the election, discussions intensified over a possible alliance between Renaissance and the centre-rightRepublicans (LR) to form a working majority, though such a coalition would still fall short of the 289 seats required for an absolute majority.[105]
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Although Macron was a member of the PS from 2006 to 2009 and anindependent politician from 2009 to 2016,[107][108] La République En Marche! seeks to transcend traditional political boundaries to be atranspartisan organisation.[42]
Various sources have described the party as beingcentrist,[109]centre-right,[110] orbig tent.[111] Historically, back in 2019, the party was also labelled by some sources ascentre-left.[114] Macron described the party in 2016 as being a progressive party of both the left and the right.[115] In 2017, observers and political commentators have described the party as beingculturally liberal,[116][117] as well associally liberal[118][119] andeconomically liberal in ideology.[120] The party has also been described as usinganti-establishment,populist strategies and rhetoric, with discourse comparable to theThird Way as adopted by theLabour Party in the UK during itsNew Labour phase.[121] The party has been described as supporting some policies close to centre-rightclassical liberalism.[122][123][124]
According to anIpsos survey conducted in March 2018, some public perception of the party has moved to the right since March 2017,[125][126][127] with 45% of respondents classifying the party as being centre-right (25%) toright-wing (20%). 21% of respondents place it in the centre, compared to 33% in March 2017.[128][129][130]
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 | This section needs to beupdated. The reason given is: Party statutes have changed including membership rules since 2016. See French version of this page.. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(October 2024) |
La République En Marche! considers every person who submits identification information (date of birth, email, full address and telephone number) and adheres to the party's charter to be a member.[131] Unlike other political parties, it does not require members to make a monetary donation.[132] Macron has indicated that it is possible to joinLa République En Marche! while remaining a member of another republican party.[42][133]
On 10 April 2016, a few days after the movement's launch, Macron claimed 13,000 members.[134]Le Canard enchaîné accused him of inflating the figure and claimed that 13,000 was in reality the number of clicks that Macron had received on his website.[135]Ismaël Emelien, Macron's advisor, clarified that "each member signs a charter of values and has a voice in the movement's general assembly" and "that has nothing to do with those who sign up for the newsletter, who are much greater in number".[136]Sylvain Fort, another of Macron's advisors, affirmed that the movement verifies the email addresses of members but conceded that "the system relies on the honesty of each member".[132]
In October 2016, Macron affirmed thatEn Marche! was "neck and neck with the Socialist Party" in terms of membership after only seven months of existence.[137] According toMediapart, this included many independents and executives, but few functionaries, farmers and unemployed people. Many of its members had never been engaged in politics. However, the majority had only shown interest by leaving their information on the party website.[138]
La République En Marche! takes inspiration from the participatory model ofDésirs d'avenir,Ségolène Royal's movement and intends to rely on its member files, according to deputyPascal Terrasse and former leader ofDésirs d'avenir.[139][140][141] According toLibération, the movement relies on a pyramidal enrolment system inspired byBarack Obama's campaigns of2008 and2012.[142]
By relying on a participatory political model, eachLa République En Marche! adherent has the opportunity to freely join or create a local committee. Each of these committees is led by one or more adherents who organize the committee by planning local events, meetings and debates centered around the ideas and values promoted by the movement.La République En Marche! counted more than 2,600 of these committees in December 2016.[143]
Christian Dargnat, former general director ofBNP Paribas Asset Management, leads the La République En Marche! financial association.[144] Since its creation, the association has raised funds for the party. In 2016, Georges Fenech, a deputy ofthe Republicans, alerted theNational Assembly that the association had continued fund raising even during Macron's trip to London. This led Prime MinisterManuel Valls to issue an official denial even though En Marche! had already done so.[145] Macron declared in May 2016 that 2,000 donors had already contributed financially to the party. In December 2016, he spoke of more than 10,000 donors from 1 euro to 7,500 euros.[146] By the end of December 2016, he had collected between 4 and 5 million euros in donations.[147] At the end of March, this figure exceeded 9 million euros from 35,000 donations, averaging 257 euros per donation. 600 donors made up half of the total amount donated, with donations upwards of 5,000 euros.[148]
In the bookDans l'enfer de Bercy: Enquête sur les secrets du ministère des Finances (JC Lattès, 2017) by journalists Frédéric Says and Marion L'Hour, Macron was accused of using 120,000 euros from the state budget from 1 January to 30 August 2016 in order to fund his presidential campaign.[149]
In theEuropean Parliament, La République En Marche sits in theRenew Europe group with five MEPs.[150][151][152][153][154]
In theEuropean Committee of the Regions, La République En Marche sits in theRenew Europe CoR group, with three full members and one alternate member for the 2025–2030 mandate.[155] Anne Rudisuhli is Coordinator in the SEDEC Commission and Magali Altounian is the Chair of the CIVEX Commission and member of the Bureau of the Renew Europe CoR Group.
| Election year | Candidate | First round | Second round | Result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Rank | Votes | % | Rank | |||
| 2017 | Emmanuel Macron | 8,656,346 | 24.01 | 1st | 20,743,128 | 66.10 | 1st | Won |
| 2022 | 9,783,058 | 27.85 |  1st | 18,768,639 | 58.55 | 1st | Won | |
| Election year | Leader | First round | Second round | Seats | +/− | Rank (seats) | Government | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||||
| 2017 | Richard Ferrand | 6,391,269 | 28.21 | 7,826,245 | 43.06 | 308 / 577 | 308 | 1st | Presidential majority (2017−2020) |
| Presidential majority (2020−2022) | |||||||||
| Presidential majority (2022) | |||||||||
| 2022 | Élisabeth Borne | 5,857,364 | 25.71 | 8,003,240 | 38.57 | 133 / 577 |  175 | 1st | Presidential minority (2022−2024) |
| 2024 | Gabriel Attal | 6,820,446 | 21.28 | 6,691,619 | 24.53 | 98 / 577 | 35 | 2nd | |
| Presidential minority (2024) | |||||||||
| Presidential minority (2024−2025) | |||||||||
| Presidential minority (2025) | |||||||||
| Presidential minority (2025−present) | |||||||||
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019[b] | Nathalie Loiseau | 5,079,015 | 22.42 (#2) | 12 / 79 | New | RE |
| 2024[c] | Valérie Hayer | 3,589,114 | 14.56 (#2) | 4 / 81 | 8 |
[...] the announcement of Philippe's appointment, delivered by the presidency's new secretary general, took just eight seconds.
General delegate of La Republique En Marche (LREM) centre-right ruling party ...
Bruno Bonnell, an MP for President Macron's centre-right En Marche party, said joint UK-France police patrols on beaches in northern France could work.
So how did things look for French President Emmanuel Macron's center-right party — La République En Marche, "The Republic on the Move"?
France's environmentalists have been highly critical of President Emmanuel Macron's government. But the new measures pit the greens against Macron's center-right La République En Marche government on issues of health and the local economy.
Mr Macron's centre-Right LREM party, only gathered 11 per cent of the vote and is not expected to win any regions.
Her list is currently running neck and neck with their centre-right/LREM opponent.
General delegate of La Republique En Marche (LREM) centre-right ruling party ...
Media related toRenaissance (party) at Wikimedia Commons| Member parties |
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