Édouard Philippe invites French right and centre leaders to coalition talks for 2027
Horizons presidential candidate Édouard Philippe will write to rival leaders Gabriel Attal and Bruno Retailleau to propose an early November meeting on programmatic unity and single legislative candidates.
An invitation for early November
On Tuesday, 8 September 2026, the campaign team for Horizons presidential candidate Édouard Philippe announced that the former prime minister will write to leaders across the French right and centre. The initiative invites figures spanning from François Bayrou's MoDem to David Lisnard's Nouvelle Énergie to a joint meeting around All Saints' Day in early November. The gathering aims to review programmatic convergences ahead of the 2027 presidential election and subsequent legislative races. Among the recipients are Philippe's direct competitors, Renaissance candidate Gabriel Attal and Les Républicains candidate Bruno Retailleau. Horizons secretary general Christophe Béchu presented the planned session as a preparatory step for future coalition governance.
The mayor of Le Havre will take the initiative to propose to the families of the right and the centre to meet at All Saints to talk about what comes next, to talk about the aftermath, for a sort of 'Committee for what comes next'.
Strategy for 577 legislative seats
Philippe's initiative targets both the presidential contest and the parliamentary elections expected to follow immediately afterward. During a speech in Tourcoing at the political gathering of Gérald Darmanin, Philippe proposed creating a unified party or a confederation of parties. The primary mechanism involves presenting a single joint candidate in each of France's 577 legislative constituencies. Campaign advisers for Philippe stated that assembling a working majority requires establishing shared program points well before the vote. His team aims to negotiate a government contract with Attal and Retailleau to consolidate centrist and conservative support behind a single platform.
- Édouard Philippe founds the Horizons party
- Gabriel Attal establishes the five-party liaison committee
- Philippe calls for November talks and convenes his first political committee
- Five-party liaison committee meets in Paris
- Philippe to resign as executive president of Horizons
- Planned meeting of right and centre party leaders around All Saints' Day
- French presidential and legislative elections
Structural changes within Horizons
Alongside the external invitations, Philippe is restructuring his campaign apparatus to move beyond his partisan base. Philippe will step down from the executive presidency of Horizons, the party he founded in 2021, on 1 October 2026 following the senatorial elections. On Tuesday evening, Philippe gathered his first expanded political committee in Paris, an entity scheduled to meet on a regular schedule. The session brought together the Horizons executive board and allied government figures, including ministers Gérald Darmanin and Maud Bregeon. The campaign is rolling out local networks named comités avec Édouard across the country, designed to incorporate activists from outside Horizons.
Rival moves and existing alliance channels
The call for unity coincides with separate campaign manoeuvres across the centre-right spectrum. On Tuesday, 8 September, Les Républicains candidate Bruno Retailleau released a statement unveiling eight campaign spokespeople. Meanwhile, an existing liaison committee created in the spring at Gabriel Attal's initiative convenes in Paris on Wednesday. That committee gathers delegates from Horizons, Renaissance, MoDem, the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), and the Radical Party. Béchu stated that Horizons does not intend to dissolve that body, but pointed out that it does not cover the complete range of right and centre forces.
