The Weekly Dispatch is your weekly summary of the major events taking place in French and European politics, published on Sundays in order to give you the perfect way to catch up with current affairs.

The Birth of a New Party

This weekend saw the militants of La République en Marche come together at the Carrousel du Louvre in order to officialise the launch of a brand-new party, reforming the movement into a new party: Renaissance.

Having voted over the last two days on the new statutes of party, the party is now a combination of the Presidential party, Territoires de progrès, and Agir. However, MoDem and Horizons have decided to remain seperate while continuing to form part of the presidential majority while maintaining their autonomy.

Created by the Renew Europe Group President Stephane Séjourné, Renaissance’s short-term goal will be to reflect on the successes and failures from recent elections, begin the planning for the upcoming European Parliamentary elections.

Longer term, the party will have the tough task of defining what macronism is, and on top of that, begin the process of finding a successor to Emmanuel Macron for the 2027 Presidential elections.

“We are determined to overcome these major upheavals, sometimes even to make them accelerators in a period when certain transformations are no longer options” stated Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne, in front of a front row that was filled by ministers who will now take on the role of Delegated Secretary Generals within the new party structure.

The new structure intends to make up for some of the weaknesses of the previous political movement, including the ability to anchor the party at a local level, which Macron made clear in his speech:

“We need today and tomorrow to continue the formidable political adventure of overcoming started in 2016. (…) We have been able to reconcile so many women and men who until then did not work together, and it is united and gathered together that we are going to open a new chapter in the political life of our country…If the progressive forces do not move forward together, they will lose together”.

In the end, however, we’ll see what comes in the future and what will take place.

But in the meantime, a small cameo from yours truly:

Edouard Philippe Reaffirms his Support

While the new party was being formed, there was always a small handful of questions doing the rounds: what about Edouard Philippe? what about Horizons? what does this mean for 2027?

For now, nothing.

Philippe, the former Prime Minister, made it clear on Friday that Horizons was still a member of the presidential majority, and that he intended to continue supporting Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne in their work, which she received warmly from the front row of the municipal theatre of Fontainebleau.

“We support the President of the Republic and we want to ensure … that this five-year term is not a lost five-year term but indeed a five-year term which allows our country to continue to prepare, to continue to move forward, to continue to reform.”

”We are a component of the majority and we are proud and happy (…) to support the Prime Minister, to support you, Elisabeth, in a task which many people know that it is very complicated, me particularly”

Elizabeth Borne herself took the stage with the final discourse, and was clear in her understanding of the problems, histories, but also benefits for all the parties involved.

“We are three political forces with their history and their sensitivity. My role and that of the government is that they are all heard, respected, involved. Our majority is based on three pillars. Horizons is one of them”

“It implies a mutual requirement. On the side of the government and the majority, it is a duty of transparency. It is the need to inform you of the agreements reached and the negotiations in progress. This is how we will avoid misunderstandings”

The Return of Pension Reform

A major lightning rod during the last quinquennat that was used by opposition forces as a battering ram until it was shelved due to the COVID-19 pandemic, French pension reform is back on the table, and Emmanuel Macron is doing what he can to get the job done.

“[It] is a reform that is necessary [because we have to] work longer in a nation where we live longer and we return later on average to active life" said the president, evidently intending to follow through on a campaign promise to raise the legal age of retirement to 65, up three years from the current age of 62.

Causing some worry, the modality of the vote is still being worked on and the method is being developed, but some stress is already popping up.

François Bayrou, the centrist stalwart who been the president of MoDem (or Mouvement Démocrate, en bon francais) for 15 years now and who is in some ways a heavyweight in the Presidential majority, has put his foot down on one proposed strategy:

“I am opposed to the passage by force. If we embark on this path, then we are certain to first unite the oppositions between them, then to divide French society”

“A few months should be enough to arrive at a solution, The President of the Republic has said that he wants the reform for the summer of 2023. With this method, with prior joint work, I am convinced that it can be adopted from the summer of 2023.”

Aside from highlighting to risk of a motion of censure in reaction to such a move, he added an important point that hints at how this type of strategy would undermine an important initiative: The National Council of Refounding.

“The passage by force is the opposite of the spirit of the CNR which claims to examine problems together … I believe that this would indeed create a bad climate and would give reason to all those who announce the failure of the CNR…It is a reform that cannot be done around an amendment”

The Future of the Socialists

It seems that things within the Parti Socialists are not getting any calmer, and there’s a big fight happening this weekend at the Rose Festival, the parties annual meeting following the summer break.

This event, while having the appearance of a fun meeting for everyone to talk about what they got up to over the summer, is much more serious than it appears, with Olivier Faure’s future potentially being in danger, with this event like being a test of his ability to impress and receive the support of militants ahead of the Socialist congress in December.

Unfortunately, many are not too keen on Faure continuing to be the Secretary General of the party, especially the old guard.

Former Hollande Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve published a manifesto for a new “Social-Democratic, republican, humanist, and ecological left” that also denounced “the void left by social democracy and left-wing humanists”.

Claiming he was asked to “do something” by friends after the Presidential elections, has always been against the alliance with Mélenchons La France Insoumise, and he has accused Faure of being subordinate to the party within the NUPES Coalition.

“Does the PS consider that the police kill? Why don't they express disagreements clearly?”

Having played his cards close to his chest, nobody knows if the plan is to renew the PS, to launch a new party entirely, or whether this is just a tool to pressure Faure out of the current alliance with LFI.

What we do know, however, is that with Carole Delga, another heavy-hitter within the party, having fought several battles during the legislative elections to preserve the historic line of the party, there is more and more support for actions that undermine the PS leadership, and which could shake the foundations of the party entirely.

Le Pens Successor

The election of Marine Le Pen’s successor continues to move into view, with the goal being to run an election that ‘causes no waves’ before the process concludes on November 5.

With the fight being between the current interim president of the Rassemblement National, Jordan Bardella MEP, and Louis Aliot, mayor of Perpignan, many would be forgiven for thinking that this was an easy win with Bardella. However, things are not as easy as they seem for the young leader, with Aliot bringing forward more experience to the table.

However, there is something that played in Bardellas favour: his close ties with Le Pen, and the strong tandem that he formed with her. He’s also betting on his being the most likely to seduce voters from Les Républicains with his more ‘mainstream’ positions, whilst also appealing to the Zemmourist tendancy on the far-right with his anchoring within the far-right flagpole.

Attempting to avoid the constant infighting that has plagued parties such as the Parti Socialiste and Les Républicains, Marine Le Pen had specifically asked “the candidates not to damage the movement” according to party officials.

Louis Aliot, was clear in his instructions for his colleagues:

“The period is for wisdom. Faced with parties that are falling apart, we must represent a pole of stability. If we conduct this election with relative benevolence, we will come out of it stronger.”

Major Media Fusion Cancelled

On a more cultural note, the long-discussed merger between the TF1 and M6 groups has been cancelled, due to a lack of “any industrial logic” in light of the concessions that the French Competition Authority demanded, which included to sale of either the TF1 or M6 channel.

"Bouygues, RTL Group, TF1 and the M6 ​​group are today putting an end to the planned merger of the TF1 and M6 groups…only structural remedies concerning at least the sale of the TF1 channel or the M6 ​​channel would be such as to allow the authorization of the operation", which those involved concluded meant "that the project no longer presented any industrial logic".

"The parties deplore that the Competition Authority did not take into account the extent and speed of the changes in the French audio-visual sector…They remain convinced that the merger of the TF1 and M6 groups would have been an appropriate response to the challenges arising from the accelerated competition with international platforms.”

One of the reasons for the obligation to sell one of the channels is that the combined weight of both channels would have made a huge change to the French audio-visual world, with a combined audience share of over 30% allowing it to overtake the France Televisions network and giving it a representation of over three quarters of the French television advertising market.

The authority, however, was clear about it’s reasoning behind this, and immediately published a press release on the decision:

“following the in-depth examination, the authority notes that television remains a very powerful medium for the French population as a whole, but also for people aged 25 to 49, who are the main target advertisers' business.

Above all, it considers that the development of VoD services does not allow, in the foreseeable future, to call into question this power insofar as the latter are intended to remain paid models, unlike the services published by the parties, and that above all, they are based on a promise of individualized consumption, which is not conducive to the simultaneous distribution of advertisements to all users.

In this context, the transaction could have created major competitive risks, particularly in the television advertising and television service distribution markets.”

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