Édouard Philippe, the mayor of Le Havre and a declared candidate in France's 2027 presidential election, has been accused on social media of wanting to push back the next president's start date to September so the winner could "rest" after the campaign. Philippe has denied the claim.
The accusation began with a post on X from the account "AlertesInfos," which has more than 845,000 followers, stating that Philippe wanted to delay the next president's inauguration to September to give the winner time to "rest" and "decompress" after the election. The post was picked up and amplified by several politicians from the far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally, RN).
National Rally MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy shared the post and said Philippe was constantly calling the French people lazy yet was already tired after just four weeks of campaigning and was asking for four months of holiday. Tanguy said Philippe was forever telling the French they needed to work much more and much longer, and asked sarcastically whether Philippe wanted a cocktail and a deck chair to go with it to spend the summer at ease. His RN colleague Thomas Ménagé made a similar accusation.
Where the claims came from
The claims trace back to a podcast interview Philippe gave to entrepreneur Pauline Laigneau, released four days before the controversy erupted. The interview runs one hour and 40 minutes, and the remarks in question begin around the 32-minute mark.
In the interview, Philippe reflected on his time as prime minister and the practical constraints of forming a government after a new head of state is elected. He said the idea that a president elected on a Sunday takes office the following week, names a prime minister within 24 hours, and receives a government within 48 hours had a "the king is dead, long live the king" quality to it. He said he understood the logic of continuity of the state but called the process "completely stupid." He compared it to the corporate world, saying no company boss would choose an executive committee in 48 hours without properly knowing the people involved or vetting them.
Before making that comparison, Philippe had specified that he was drawing a parallel with the American system, in which a president is elected in November but does not take office until January, with the outgoing president continuing to govern in the interim. He said the Americans had solved that problem of assembling a governing team better than France has.
What Philippe actually said about a three-month gap
Laigneau then asked him about the possibility of taking three months to form a government. Philippe replied that this would be wonderful, but that a country cannot be left in limbo for three months, since there are decisions to take, a supplementary budget to prepare and a legislative election coming up. A government has to be in place, he said.
But the system doesn't work that way, and you have to work with the system as it actually functions.
Philippe went on to say that if things were designed today, he would love a system in which the president is elected in May but takes office in September, giving them time between the two dates to rest and decompress after a presidential campaign. He said he was not suggesting the president should take three months of holiday, but that a week would not hurt, nor would two. He said that extra time would allow a president-elect to consult more slowly with unions, business groups and foreign heads of state, build a team and issue instructions ready to start work in early September.
Philippe added that he was aware the American system could not simply be transplanted onto the French one, and repeated that the current system has to be worked with as it stands, because changing it would be very complicated.
Who is Édouard Philippe
Philippe served as France's prime minister under President Emmanuel Macron from 2017 to 2020. He is now mayor of Le Havre and founder of the centrist Horizons party, and has declared his candidacy for the 2027 presidential election.
Philippe's response
On Thursday evening, facing the growing controversy, Philippe responded on social media. He said cutting a minute of reasoning down to a few seconds that made it say the opposite of his conclusion was a strange approach to public debate. He said the full segment was available online and people only needed to listen to it, and he posted a video extract of his remarks. He also used the moment to point to the National Rally's role in spreading what he called the "controversy."
