Renaissance (French political party)
Renaissance is a political party in France that is typically described as liberal and centrist or centre-right. The party was originally known as En Marche ! and later La République En Marche !, LREM, LaREM or REM), before adopting its current name in September 2022. RE is the leading force of the centrist Ensemble coalition, coalesced around Emmanuel Macron's original presidential majority.
The party was established on 6 April 2016 by Macron, a former Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, who was later elected president in the 2017 presidential election with 66.1% of the second-round vote. Subsequently, the party ran candidates in the 2017 legislative election, including dissidents from the Socialist Party and the Republicans, as well as minor parties, winning an absolute majority in the National Assembly. Macron was re-elected in the 2022 presidential election, but the party lost its absolute majority in the 2022 legislative election.
Macron conceived RE as a progressive movement, uniting both left and right. RE supports pro-Europeanism and globalization and wants to "modernise and moralise" French politics. The party has accepted members from other political parties at a higher rate than other parties in France, and does not impose any fees on members who want to join. The party has been a founding member of Renew Europe, the political group of the European Parliament representing liberals and centrists, since June 2019.
History
Foundation
La Gauche Libre, the think tank for the movement, was declared as an organization on 1 March 2015. Afterwards, lesjeunesavecmacron.fr was registered as a domain on 23 June 2015. Eventually, two Facebook pageswere created and an extra domain registered. Another organization was eventually created by Macron, declared as L'Association pour le renouvellement de la vie politique and registered as a micro-party in January 2016. This was following en-marche.fr being claimed as a domain. L'Association pour le renouvellement de la vie politique was then registered as EMA EN MARCHE in March 2016.En Marche! was established on 6 April 2016 in Amiens by Emmanuel Macron, then aged 38, with the help of political advisor Ismaël Emelien. The initials of the name of the party are the same as the initials of Macron's name.
The announcement of En Marche! was the first indication by Macron that he was planning to run for President, with Macron using En Marche! to fundraise for the potential presidential run. The launch of the party was widely covered throughout the media and media coverage continued to peak as tensions rose among Macron and other government ministers as his loyalty was questioned. In the weeks following the creation of En Marche!, Macron soared in the opinion polls, coming to be seen as the main competitor on the left.
The creation of En Marche! was welcomed by several political figures including Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Pierre Gattaz, although it was also criticised by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Christian Estrosi.
In an attempt to create the party's first campaign platform, Macron and head of operations Ludovic Chaker recruited 4,000 volunteers to conduct door-to-door surveys of 100,000 people, using the information gained to create a programme closer to the French electorate.
Later that year, Chaker structured the movement and became the first general secretary of Emmanuel Macron's party En Marche! and its first official employee. He was then appointed as deputy general secretary and coordinator of Macron's campaign operations for the 2017 French presidential election.
2017 legislative election
La République En Marche! ran candidates in most constituencies. At least half its candidates came from civil society, the other half having previously held political office and half were women. Candidates could not be selected for more than one constituency. In addition to those parameters, Macron specified in his initial press conference on 19 January that he would require that candidates demonstrate probity, political plurality and efficacy. Those wishing to seek the endorsement of LREM had to sign up online and the movement received nearly 15,000 applications.When dealing with nominations sought by those in the political world, the party considered the popularity, establishment and media skills of applicants, with the most difficult cases adjudicated by Macron himself. To present themselves under the label of La République En Marche!, outgoing deputies had to leave the Socialist Party or the Republicans. Macron previously said the legislative candidates would have to leave the PS before they could join LREM, though on 5 May 2017 Macron waived this requirement. However, then-spokesperson of LREM Christophe Castaner later said they could stay in the PS as long as they supported Macron. Moreover, spokesperson Jean-Paul Delevoye said the members of civil society could be mayors or members of regional councils and departmental councils.
After François Bayrou endorsed Macron in February, the Democratic Movement, which he leads, reserved 90 constituencies for MoDem candidates, of which 50 were reported by Le Figaro to be winnable.
On 15 May 2017, the secretary general of the presidency announced the appointment of Édouard Philippe, a member of LR, as Prime Minister.
On 18 June 2017, La République En Marche! won an absolute majority in the National Assembly, securing 308 seats while collecting only 28.21% of the vote on the first round, and 43.06% on the second round. Additionally, MoDem secured 42 seats. LREM became France's party of power, in support of the President.
2017 Senate election and first party congress
In the 2017 Senate election, La République En Marche! lost seats, ending up with 21, seven fewer than before. While hoping to double its representatives in the Senate, party officials noted that due to the electoral system of indirect universal suffrage, where deputies, senators and regional councilors elect senators, the party had a disadvantage due to being new.In the same month, it was announced that the first party congress was to be held in Lyon. The first gathering of party members and representatives, party spokesman, Christophe Castaner announced his candidacy on 25 October 2017 with the endorsement of President Macron, allowing him to run unopposed. The congress took place on the 19 November 2017 and Castaner was elected the Executive Officer and leader of the party by a council of 800 people, with a quarter being members of the party. Castaner was elected for a term of three years. The congress generated media attention for criticism surrounding it, including a walk-out by attendees of the congress where a hundred attendees resigned from the party citing a lack of internal democracy and corruption.
The first by-election of the 15th National Assembly of France in Val-d'Oise's 1st constituency, which was a La République En Marche! seat, was called after it was ruled that deputy Isabelle Muller-Quoy's replacement Michel Alexeef was ineligible under the electoral code. Muller-Quoy, who had won the first round by 18 percentage points in 2017, won the first round of the by-election by only 5 percentage points, and went on to lose the seat to the LR candidate Antoine Savignat. The race was the first loss the party had endured in the National Assembly. Several subsequent by-elections showed a 10% overall swing against La République En Marche! since the June 2017 legislative elections.
2019 European Parliament election
Ahead of the 2019 European Parliament election, La République En Marche! was widely expected to formalise a cooperation agreement with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, the main liberal-centrist group in the European Parliament. However, amid the domestic upheaval caused by the Gilets Jaunes protests and the broader rise of nationalist and populist forces across Europe, President Emmanuel Macron recalibrated his strategy. Rather than aligning LREM directly with the existing ALDE brand, Macron chose to lead a more autonomous, pro-European campaign under the banner of Renaissance, framing it as a call for continental political renewal.Following the election—during which the Renaissance list secured a strong second-place finish in France—LREM and its allies played a central role in the reorganisation of the ALDE parliamentary group. This process culminated in the launch of a new centrist and liberal alliance: Renew Europe, officially formed in June 2019. The group brought together Macron's Renaissance list, ALDE-affiliated parties, and other like-minded liberal and pro-European movements from across the European Union, making Renew Europe the third-largest political group in the European Parliament.
2020 municipal elections
For the 2020 French municipal elections, La République En Marche! set itself the ambitious objective of electing around 10,000 municipal councillors nationwide. Following the first round, party officials reported having already secured approximately 6,000 seats, mainly in small towns and rural communes. The party invested 592 lead candidates in municipalities with more than 9,000 inhabitants, of whom 289 were official LREM members.Between the two rounds, LREM pursued a strategy of forging local alliances—76 with right-leaning lists and 33 with left-leaning ones—in towns over 9,000 residents. In several large cities, such as Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and Tours, the party aligned with centre-right incumbents to counter rising ecological or left-wing lists. According to party leadership, this skew toward the right was largely due to the political landscape inherited from the 2014 municipal elections, where the right had made significant gains. Marie Guévenoux, co-president of LREM's national investiture commission, justified the imbalance by saying that the party would have "preferred to forge alliances with the left," but left-wing groups generally declined to cooperate.
Despite the party's confident outlook following previous successes in the 2017 legislative and 2019 European elections, LREM ultimately failed to win any major city. It claimed 146 mayors invested or supported in municipalities with more than 9,000 inhabitants, and only three municipalities over 30,000 residents—all of which were victories by right-wing incumbents supported by LREM.
In key symbolic cities such as Paris and Lyon, where the party had invested heavily, its candidates suffered heavy defeats, often finishing in third or fourth place. In Bordeaux, an alliance with the outgoing right-wing mayor failed to block a surge by the ecologists. Across the country, a “green wave” led by EELV swept through major urban centres, including Lyon, Strasbourg, and Bordeaux, dashing LREM's hopes of a metropolitan breakthrough.
The campaign also reflected deeper political tensions facing LREM. In many constituencies, candidates avoided displaying the party's logo due to widespread public dissatisfaction stemming from the Yellow vests movement, ongoing pension reform protests, youth-led climate strikes, and criticism over the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.