Tuesday April 11, 2023, Edouard Philippe held a public meeting of his Horizons party, in Toulouse. Considering that the public debate is not up to scratch on certain “major subjects”, Edouard Philippe presented the political priorities of his very young party and called for France to be given a “strategic vision”, report our colleagues from 20 minutes.
Does this strategic vision announce the premises of a program for 2027? This Tuesday, Edouard Philippe declared: “In terms of school, health, technological revolution, research, security, defence, in all areas, we must have a strategic vision”. It is necessary “to define a collective project which makes it possible to train the French.”
In the absence of a presidential program recognized as such, Edouard Philippe “continues to develop what is intended to become a great political formation, sure of its values, present everywhere in the territory, rooted, working on a long-term strategy”, revealed- he at the Figaro.
The term “strategy” comes up frequently in the speeches of the former Prime Minister. And for good reason, it is the key word of his party. In a presentation clip from Horizons, published in July 2022, Edouard Philippe was already talking about a new political strategy. “There is not a company, there is not a city, there is not a country that is capable of acting in the long term without a strategy so here, from now on, we are building a strategy “. What does this “strategy” actually mean?
According to the Horizons manifesto, Edouard Philippe seeks “the unity and cohesion of France around its values”. He presents “freedom as the cardinal value of the Republic; order as the best guarantee of the freedom and prosperity of the country.” Beyond these relatively general formulas, Horizons also wishes to embody an “ecological ambition”, “social justice”, “National independence” and “the European project”.
One of the points of the manifesto takes on more importance than the others: education. This subject is the one that comes up most frequently during these public speeches. In his party’s presentation video, the former Prime Minister said: “We have to talk about education, because an education system that would work much better is insurance, twenty years later, or ten years later, of renewed or increased power and prosperity”.
Tuesday, April 11, he reiterated his commitment. “I have always said: the number one priority is school”. However, “look at the public debate on these major subjects: school is to despair. Every time we talk about school, it’s little things.” According to 20 Minutes, Edouard Philippe then took the “uniform controversy” as an example.
In the July 2022 clip, the second point on which Edouard Philippe insisted was that of the importance of mayors. “Why are we depriving ourselves in the national public debate […] of the experience of those whose job, mandate, is to be as close as possible to our fellow citizens and to have responsibilities? executives.”
In the Horizons manifesto, one of the prevailing points is that of a “decentralized organization of the Republic”. It would seem that for the former Prime Minister this goes through the councilors. “Mayors must participate more than today in the national public debate […] on subjects that are absolutely fundamental: pensions, long-term public debt.”
The speech of Edouard Philippe, turned towards the town halls, seems to bear fruit. Horizons claims 20,000 members, 800 municipal committees, around 40 parliamentarians and nearly 500 partisan mayors.
According to 20 Minutes, several members of the municipal majority in Toulouse have already joined the ranks of Horizons. But the mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc does not intend to join the movement. On Tuesday, April 11, he said, “I want to keep my independence. Horizons is part of the presidential majority. I don’t want to join the presidential majority.”