EU elections: France’s presidential majority unveils the first 30 names on its list

6 months ago 25

Outgoing members of the parliament who distinguished themselves during the last term are given priority on Besoin d’Europe’s list unveiled on Friday (3 May). Several regional representatives complete the list of eligible candidates, but few are known.

Emmanuel Macron’s majority list, led by MEP Valérie Hayer, gives a lot of space to outgoing MEPs who, during the last term (2019-2024), made a mark on the European Parliament.

The presidential camp is currently projected to score 17% of the votes, according to the latest survey carried out by Ipsos, in partnership with Cevipof, Institut Montaigne, Fondation Jean Jaurès, and Le Monde. It hopes to send 17 representatives to Brussels in July.

Leading quintet

Bernard Guetta occupies the prestigious second place on the list – he was only eighth in 2019. The former columnist on France Inter radio, an expert on geopolitical issues and the war in Ukraine, had expressed his wish in February to head the list.

The media-friendly chairman of the Parliament’s Environment Committee, Pascal Canfin, a former ecologist who joined the Macronist camp in 2019, is also back for another round, positioned in fourth.

Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a member of François Bayrou’s MoDem party who has spent the last five years working on trade policy issues, enters the list in third place.

Nathalie Loiseau, who led the liberal list in 2019, rounds out the list’s top five candidates. Loiseau directed the prestigious École nationale d’administration (ENA), where all top civil servants and officials study, and was minister for Europe in Edouard Philippe’s first government – she is a member of his Horizons party.

During this mandate, she was chairwoman of the European Parliament’s subcommittee on security and defence, and coordinator of the Liberal Renew Europe group within the special committee on the fight against foreign interference (INGE).

Eligible seats

Many outgoing MEPs also find themselves in eligible positions.

Sandro Gozi (MoDem), Fabienne Keller – who negotiated the Asylum and Migration Pact on behalf of the Liberals in Parliament – Laurence Farreng (MoDem), and Gilles Boyer (Horizons) – Edouard Philippe’s strongman in Brussels – are among the top 10 names certain to be elected.

Christophe Grudler (MoDem), a specialist in energy issues, space and industry policy, and Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, who has closely followed digital and economic issues, should almost certainly go for another round, in 12th and 13th place respectively.

Jérémy Decerle, a farmer who took to the frontline to defend the President’s record during farmers’ protests earlier this year, sees himself relegated to 14th place. He was 4th in 2019.

A number of new faces, including regionally elected representatives and members of civil society, are also expected to take their first steps in the hemicycle. When he was first elected, Macron promised to bring more non-politicians to politics.

Grégory Allione, Comptroller General of the French Fire Department and former Bouches-du-Rhône fire department chief, has been awarded eighth place.

Valérie Devaux (Union des Démocrates et Indépendants, UDI), departmental council representative for the Amiens canton, takes 11th place. Sylvie Gustave-Dit-Duflo, President of the Board of Directors of the French Biodiversity Office and Vice-President of the Guadeloupe Region in charge of the environment, joins the list at 15th place.

Laurent Hénart, President of the Radical Party and member of Besoin d’Europe, is in 16th place. Bérangère Abba (Horizons), former Secretary of State for Biodiversity (2020-2022), defeated in the 2022 legislative elections, is in 17th place, on the verge of not being elected according to projections.

Outgoing and ineligible

The influential MEP Pierre Karleskind, chairman of the Fisheries Committee, has apparently called it a day.

In a message on the social media platform X, he states that he has been entrusted with a new mission by the Head of State “in line with my commitment to him and the work accomplished over the last five years in the European Parliament”. He is placed in 30th place, from where he can play a supportive role.

Max-Léo Orville, who came to the European Parliament in 2022 to replace Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, who was appointed to the government, sees his European future filled with uncertainty, occupying 18th place. He would be the first position not to enter Parliament according to the Ipsos poll.

Nine outgoing MEPs out of 23 will not be reappointed, and do not appear on the list, including Stéphane Bijoux, Catherine Chabaud, Dominique Riquet and Irène Tolleret.

Lastly, a number of new faces appear in positions on the list unlikely to turn into electoral success: the president of the Jeunes avec Macron (the Youth with Macron), Ambroise Méjean, is in 20th place, while lawyer Rachel-Flore Pardo is 21st. Séverine de Compreignac, general secretary of the Démocrates, MoDem et indépendants group at the French National Assembly, is 19th.

[Edited by Aurélie Pugnet/Chris Powers]