On April 24, 2022, Emmanuel Macron was elected President of the Republic against Marine Le Pen and therefore began his second term as head of state. “I’m not looking to be re-elected, constitutionally I can’t,” he said in an interview with France 2 and TF1 on Wednesday March 22, 2023.
Indeed, as indicated in Article 6 of the Constitution, “The President of the Republic is elected for five years by direct universal suffrage. No one may serve more than two consecutive terms”. Thus, the presidential election of 2027 seems to be out of reach for the head of state who will be forced to give up his place.
But, in the corridors of the Elysée, it is rumored that Emmanuel Macron is not yet determined to give up the supreme function. “Behind the scenes, he is preparing his return to the Elysée Palace in 2032. This is his goal today,” a close friend of the Executive told our colleagues from La Tribune. In reality, this scenario would not be unthinkable. At the time of this election, the enarque will then be 55 years old, three years older than Nicolas Sarkozy during his first campaign, an age which would therefore not seem inadequate with the position.
In addition to his thirst for power, this hypothesis would also allow the current head of state to satisfy his thirst for greatness. If he managed to be elected three times, he would become the one to have been elected the most times to the presidential office, a way of surpassing his illustrious predecessors such as Charles De Gaulle or François Mitterrand.
For this goal to be realized, Emmanuel Macron must ingeniously place his pawns and find someone to succeed him for five years and keep the Elysée Palace warm. This scenario would be reminiscent of the strategy used by another head of state, a certain Vladimir Putin.
In 2008, the current President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, had made sure to propel one of his most loyal subjects, Dimitri Medvedev, to the head of state to better return four years later. The comparison with his French counterpart may seem audacious, since the two politicians remain very different, both in their line and in their way of governing.
However, if Emmanuel Macron wanted to run again in 2032, he would have to adopt a strategy similar to the head of the Kremlin, and choose a faithful to succeed him. Within the presidential palace, several names are circulating.
Gérald Darmanin, Edouard Philippe, François Bayrou… In the ranks of the majority, the number of people to ogle at the supreme office is not lacking. But according to “Jacques Sisteron”, an anonymous source close to the Elysée, “The president’s objective would be to have Bruno Le Maire elected to the Elysée, who is also the darling of the presidential couple, to better return in 2032 “, he confided in the columns of La Tribune.
But another candidate could also be selected, Jean Castex. The former Prime Minister has several tricks up his sleeve. As his supporters noted with Le Parisien, he has a certain popularity with the French, a fairly strong provincial anchorage but also and above all, he is particularly loyal to Emmanuel Macron.