Macron managed to interrupt this duopoly in 2017, when the 37-year-old campaigned for the president on a pro-market and socially liberal platform with the ambition of the mode of moderates from all walks of life.
His victory was followed by an exodus of the leaders and voters of the socialists and the Republicans. The centrists gravity towards Macron and his allies, while the voters of the hard line were attracted to more radical voices – Le Pen on the right, and the anti -capitalist chief Jean -Luc Mélenchon on the left.
The 2022 presidential election has proven humiliating for both parties. The conservatives won less than 5% of the votes and the socialists caught only 1.7%. Le Pen has done the runoff again, Mélenchon ending closely behind it.
Popularity remains a problem for both parties, but things improve. The Republicans met in government following Macron’s unhappy decision to call the SNAP elections last year. The socialists, after seeing Mélenchon dominate two consecutive presidential elections on the left, united their strengths with him. THE Pan-left movement that emerged ended up shocking the political establishment by winning the vote.
Recover the leadership
While the race to replace Macron begins to take shape, the two camps seek to reconquer lost voters and, finally, to recover their old places at the top of the straight and left aisles of French politics.
A member of the high -ranking government of Les Républicains, who has obtained anonymity to speak frankly, thinks that the process is already in motion.