Gabriel Attal enters the 2027 presidential race
The Renaissance leader declared his candidacy in rural Aveyron, as France again tops EU investment rankings and Ben-Gvir is banned from French territory
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This week
🌍France remains most attractive EU country for foreign investment
🇮🇱Ben-Gvir banned from France
🏛️Attal announces 2027 Presidential run
🌍France remains most attractive EU country for foreign investment
Let’s start the week off with some positive news: France has, once again, been found to be the most attractive country for foreign investments in Europe. This is the 7th consecutive year where this has been the case, and has often been hailed as a Macron effect.
Ernst & Young releases an annual ‘Foreign Direct Investment Survey’ for each global region, in which it measures and assesses the attractiveness of regions and countries globally.
The goal here is for these reports to help inform the decisions of global businesses, which need all the information they can get to make their investment decisions, and governments, which need information to remove barriers to growth.
As you can see from the chart below, France is in first place with 852 projects, followed closely by the United Kingdom (730), Germany (548), Turkey (383), and Spain (376).
However, it should also be noted that while France is doing well, it has still seen a 17% drop in projects. Alongside this, there’s also bad news for the continent: Europe’s ability to attract investment appears to be eroding, with a drop of 7% compared to the previous year.
As you can see from the above graphic, things have been steadily falling since 2021, with Europe receiving around 192,094 less FDI projects in 2025 than the recent 2021 peak.
There can be many explanations for this, with the geopolitical context becoming increasingly unstable, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Iran-American war creating havoc.
There is also the socio-political dimension: countries like the US are completely changing their strategies due to political positioning under leaders like Donald Trump, and other countries simply do not have economies that can currently sustain high-level investments.
But I will be going further into depth on this topic and the report this week.
🇮🇱Ben-Gvir banned from France
So, moving on to foreign affairs, France has banned Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from French territory.
The move was announced by French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Twitter this past Saturday, citing his conduct toward French and European passengers aboard the Gaza flotilla.
“With immediate effect, Itamar Ben-Gvir is barred from entering French territory.
This decision follows his unspeakable behaviour towards French and European citizens travelling on the Global Smud flotilla.
We disapprove of the flotilla’s approach, which serves no useful purpose and places an undue burden on diplomatic and consular services, whose professionalism and dedication I commend.
However, we cannot tolerate French nationals being threatened, intimidated or brutalised in this way, especially by a public official.
I note that these actions have been condemned by a large number of Israeli government and political leaders.
They follow a long list of shocking statements and actions, and incitement to hatred and violence against Palestinians.
Like my Italian colleague, I call on the European Union to impose sanctions on Itamar Ben-Gvir as well.”
The move came days after Ben-Gvir posted a video to his Telegram channel showing dozens of activists from the flotilla kneeling with their hands bound, set to the Israeli national anthem. “Welcome to Israel, we are at home!” he wrote alongside the footage. Detained passengers subsequently reported physical violence, groping and deliberate humiliation at the hands of Israeli forces.
Barrot made clear France had no sympathy for the flotilla’s mission, which he described as producing no useful outcome and straining diplomatic and consular services.
The ban was about something else: “we cannot tolerate that French nationals may be threatened, intimidated or brutalised, least of all by a public official.” Barrot also called on the European Union to follow suit with its own sanctions against the minister.
Around fifty vessels had departed Turkey last week in a renewed attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Israeli authorities intercepted the flotilla on Monday off Cyprus, detaining 430 activists, including 37 French nationals. All were expelled by Thursday.
Even Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from Ben-Gvir’s conduct, saying the treatment shown in the video was not in keeping with Israeli values and norms. Barrot noted the incident was the latest in a long pattern of inflammatory statements and actions against Palestinians.
🏛️Attal announces 2027 Presidential run
Ending the week with some big news:
Former prime minister and current secretary general of Renaissance Gabriel Attal finally declared his candidacy for the 2027 French presidential election on Friday.
Choosing the pastoral Mur-de-Barrez, a village of 700 people in the Aveyron department, Attal made a deliberate political statement in choosing the Massif Central as his starting point.
What is the Massif Central?
A large highland region in south-central France, it covers roughly 15% of the country’s territory across departments such as Aveyron, Cantal, and Lozère.
It is sparsely populated, economically peripheral, and culturally associated with a rural France that feels remote from Paris in every sense due to poor transport connections, which have knock-on effects on education, health, and job provision for the citizens living within it.
Politically, it is exactly the kind of territory Macronism has consistently struggled with. A widespread sense that Paris governs for Paris, and that rural areas are left to manage their own decline, runs deep. The vote for Marine Le Pen and, later, Jordan Bardella is strong here, and the "metropolitan elite" critique of Macron lands harder than almost anywhere else in France. It is no accident that Attal chose it as his starting point.
The declaration came at the end of a “débat citoyen et banquet républicain” organised by the local mayor, Pierre Ignace (Renaissance), and around a hundred residents had received a vague invitation to meet a mysterious “national political guest.”
The format nodded to Jacques Chirac’s 2002 declaration from Avignon. Prompted by Ignace, Attal delivered his announcement before a large French flag: “Yes, it is because I love France deeply, and because I love the French deeply, that I have decided to run for the presidency of the Republic.” A large French flag hung on the facade behind him.
The symbolism was thick. Attal, 37, grew up in Paris’s 6th arrondissement, attended the Ecole alsacienne and Sciences Po, and held five government posts in six years before reaching Matignon in January 2024.
His team know his profile, how it sounds to the average French citizen, and exactly how it plays publicly as a political attack.
Which is exactly why the Aveyron trip was organised and designed as it was, hoping to counter the image of a macronisme that is too urban and too disconnected from what French political shorthand calls “le pays réel.” His adviser Patrick Vignal put it plainly: the goal is to “deconstruct this image of a Macronie that is too metropolitan and not sufficiently rooted in the real country.”
Not everyone found it convincing. According to reports by Le Monde, Arnaud Péricard, spokesperson for Horizons, was dismissive before Attal had even arrived: “The hypocrisy knows no limits. You don’t invent a local connection, you build one.”
And of course, Horizons is led by centre-right Presidential candidate, former prime minister, and mayor of Le Havre, Edouard Philippe, and this is part of their ongoing competition. Attal is widely considered the main obstacle for Philippe, who remains the favourite to carry the bloc centre-right into 2027.
Attal’s supporters like to compare the contest to Chirac versus Balladur in 1995, casting their man as the scrappy outsider who will overcome a more established, experienced candidate.
Philippe and his party are also attempting to deal with the fallout of his ‘Cité Numérique’ corruption case, which risks creating a similar dynamic to 2017’s infamous Fillon affair, where François Fillon’s presidential ambitions completely imploded.
Philippe's Le Havre problem just became a Presidential problem
The PNF has referred the Cité numérique file to a juge d'instruction. The centrist favourite is now fighting to stay clean.
For now, Attal and Philippe have agreed to discuss the “necessity of uniting” until February 2027, with both privately hoping the other will drop out first or be knocked out due to polls or other external factors.
Attal’s strategy has been to move fast and make noise, and his closest adviser and Renaissance director general, Maxime Cordier, has framed it in terms of building momentum: “What is crystallising in public opinion is the candidates’ ability to put themselves on the line, carry the country with them and create momentum.”
The proposals have come quickly: reopening the Surrogacy (Gestation pour Autrui, GPA) debate, pension reform without an age pivot, an overhaul of the labour code and juvenile justice, scrapping the overtime cap, and questioning the primacy of international law. Opponents within the ex-majorité présidentielle accuse him of opportunism and poll-chasing in an already polarised political scene.
And the tensions are already showing: Elisabeth Borne resigned from the Renaissance leadership on May 6 due to disagreements over the party’s direction, and she has said she will not attend his first campaign meeting, scheduled for May 30 at the Porte de Versailles in Paris.
Neither will National Assembly president Yaël Braun-Pivet nor minister Aurore Bergé. However, that’s not to say there’s no momentum behind him. A pre-launch appeal signed by “500 mayors and local elected officials” and published in La Tribune du dimanche last week showed some strength.
However, it turned out to include just over 70 actual mayors, with the rest being municipal councillors.
Bardella Faces EU Fraud Probe Amid French Election Scandal
Bardella faces an EPPO investigation, Le Pen awaits her appeal ruling, an Israeli firm is accused of election interference in France, and Attal is making his move
While this has been criticised, Attal’s camp is playing down the potential problems. His popularity at book-signing sessions and on social media is the reassurance they keep returning to. A first meeting at Porte de Versailles, where Renaissance members will likely vote to confirm him as the party’s candidate shortly after.
However, the big question is whether he can succeed in the démacronisation of his image, and whether any success will hold in the long term is another question.
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