Francois Patriat, Francois Rebsamen, Denis Thuriot, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. Overview of the political figures of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté who have chosen to join Emmanuel Macron since 2017.
Since 2016 and the creation of his party, he has embarked on a major recruitment campaign. Emmanuel Macron has upset the tectonics of the political plates, causing the PS to implode from within and weakening Les Républicains from the outside.
As a result, in nearly 6 years, figures from the left and the right have left their original formations to join Macronie. Faithful from the start, rallied later or pragmatic supporters within the framework of the famous republican front after the results of the first round of this presidential 2022, we take stock of those who choose Emmanuel Macron in Burgundy.
As a reminder, the former Minister of the Economy (2014-2016) during the Hollande five-year term came out on top of the votes this Sunday, April 10 with 27.6%, ahead of Marine Le Pen and her 23%. In Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, it is nevertheless the RN candidate who finishes ahead (27.35% of the votes), the outgoing president achieving a score of 26.3%.
François Patriat (ex-PS), LREM senator from Côte-d’Or
The former PS baron and the power-hungry young wolf. François Patriat is one of Emmanuel Macron’s oldest followers. On September 17, 2016, while driving home from a football match between Dijon and Metz, the former Minister of Agriculture in the Jospin government (2002), was hit at 130 km/h by a motorist. At the same time, his phone rings.
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At the end of the line, Emmanuel Macron who seeks to obtain some political advice from someone who could pass for a sage. François Patriat explains to him that he is dying, crushed in his car. The future President of the Republic calls for help. The former president of the council of Burgundy is saved. It is therefore both political and human ties that unite the two men.
At the end of 2016, François Patriat then supported the party Working !, launched by Emmanuel Macron. In 2017 for the presidential election, the senator from Côte-d’Or gives his sponsorship to the one who is seen as a traitor by the PS. François Patriat slams the door of his original formation. A few months later, in June, he became the president of the LREM group in the Senate. A position he still holds today.
In 2022, François Patriat logically calls for supporting Emmanuel Macron for the presidential election in order to defend a “France and a more independent Europe” and build “a better future for our country and for our children”.
On March 28, the senator from Côte-d’Or will also be one of the guests of the visit of the president-candidate to Dijon on the theme of education.
Denis Thuriot (ex-PS), LREM mayor of Nevers
We could almost see him as an inspiration to Emmanuel Macron. In 2014, Denis Thuriot left the PS to run for municipal elections in Nevers. Without label, it qualifies in the second round and merges with the right to win against the left alliance.
Interested, Emmanuel Macron organizes a meeting in the spring of 2016 with Denis Thuriot. As he enters the presidential campaign of 2017, the future president even goes to the city which was led by Pierre Bérégovoy (former prime minister of François Mitterrand) for one of his first trips.
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Denis Thuriot and Emmanuel Macron come together in their intention to overcome divisions and their desire to put an end to political labels. The mayor of Nevers joins Working ! and obtains a second term at the head of the town of 57,000 inhabitants wearing the colors of a stable, LREM of course.
A year later, Denis Thuriot is again a candidate for the presidential majority, this time for the Regionals in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Head of the list, he qualified in the second round with 11% of the vote. He reached out to Marie-Guite Dufay but, failing an agreement, held on and finally finished with 9.79%.
For the 2022 presidential election, Denis Thuriot is therefore, unsurprisingly, one of Emmanuel Macron’s allies.
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (ex-LR), former senator for Yonne
While Macronie has many left-wing Burgundian political figures, it has also managed to seduce right-wing personalities. Among them, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne.
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For nearly 20 years, the latter will make his ranges within the UMP then the Republicans, as a ministerial collaborator, general adviser of Yonne or even senator of Yonne. But the 2017 presidential election has severed its ties with the traditional right.
During the Republican primary, he supports the candidacy of Alain Juppé. François Fillon finally won the primary but his presidential campaign got bogged down on suspicion of fictitious jobs. On March 15, 2017, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne made his choice. He joined Emmanuel Macron and resigned from his duties as national secretary of the LR as well as president of the party federation in Yonne.
Once Macron was elected, he joined the government as Secretary of State, notably to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs. In December 2021, he was finally appointed Minister Delegate in charge of Small and Medium Enterprises.
At the same time, he will remain senator for Yonne until November 2020 and departmental adviser until June 2021.
For 2022, he supports the outgoing president candidate for his own re-election.
François Rebsamen (ex-PS), mayor of Dijon
He is a friend of François Hollande, but he made the recent choice to support Emmanuel Macron. François Rebsamen called for voting for the outgoing president during this 2022 presidential election on March 5.
But the former PS executive, number 2 in the party from 1997 to 2008, has been around Macronie for several months. In July 2021, François Rebsamen, like 381 other political figures, signed a platform of various mayors and local elected officials who saluted the courage of the decisions taken by Emmanuel Macron.
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A few months later, on October 9, he sent a video message during the congress of the Territory of Progress, the movement which brought together members of the left wing of the presidential majority. He then asserts: “we will be led tomorrow to pursue common causes”.
For several months, Emmanuel Macron will work to attract the mayor of Dijon, a heavyweight on the left, into his nets. He will therefore achieve this just before the first round of the 2022 presidential election. The president-candidate then makes his first campaign trip to Dijon on March 28, where he is warmly welcomed by the former Minister of Labor.
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In the process, François Rebsamen created a party bringing together several figures from the PS: “Progressive Federation”. His goal: to support Emmanuel Macron in the event of re-election.
Guillaume Larrivé (LR), MP for Yonne
Guillaume Larrivé has certainly not left Les Républicains, but the deputy of Yonne is not insensitive to the ideas of Emmanuel Macron.
However, in 2017, he declared to vote white in the second round of the presidential election which saw Marine Le Pen and the candidate Working !.
But in July 2020, the former regional councilor of Burgundy is the only LR deputy to vote for confidence in the Castex government, in the midst of a pandemic crisis. Guillaume Larrivé arouses the anger of 5 elected officials from Icaun who demand his resignation from Republicans of Yonne which he has led since 2018.
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Also in July 2020, the one who ran for president of the Republicans a year earlier is expected to be appointed Minister of Justice. It is finally Éric Dupond-Moretti who integrates the function.
For this 2022 presidential election, the deputy for Yonne will adopt an ambivalent position, officially supporting Valérie Pécresse, but pleading for Emmanuel Macron in the event of the defeat of candidate LR. Last March, Guillaume Larrivé felt that his party should “build a new majority with Emmanuel Macron”Due to “strong convergences”.
Following the elimination of Valérie Pécresse, Guillaume Larrivé therefore calls to vote for the outgoing president. “The best to lead our country now is Emmanuel Macron. I will vote for him on April 24”tweete-t-il.
Marie-Guite Dufay (PS), president of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region
Elected PS at the head of Franche-Comté since 2008 then of the greater region since 2016, Marie-Guite Dufay had confessed to having voted for Emmanuel Macron during the 2017 presidential election, without however leaving her original formation and joining LREM. Marie-Guite Dufay refuses even during the Macron mandate to enter the government.
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It is then as a candidate for the Socialist Party that she will be re-elected president of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in 2021, affirming that her convictions remain “to the left”. After the first round of the election, she even rejected the outstretched hand of LREM candidate Denis Thuriot and chose to ally with La France Insoumise and EELV.
For the presidential election this year, she also shows her support for PS candidate Anne Hidalgo. But after the elimination of the latter and faced with the threat of a victory for Marine Le Pen, Marie-Guite Dufay calls for the vote for Emmanuel Macron, while asking him for “pledges to all those who are going to play the Republican start“.
François Sauvadet (UDI), president of Côte-d’Or and of the assembly of the departments of France
According to certain sources we contacted last February, there was talk of François Sauvadet announcing his support for Emmanuel Macron in the context of the 2022 presidential election. Before the first round, nothing happened.
Close to François Bayrou, François Sauvadet finally supported Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. In 2008, he became chairman of the board of Côte-d’Or, a position he still holds today. He will also be Minister of Public Service from June 2011 to May 2012.
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Faithful to the UDI, François Sauvadet is critical of the Macron mandate, for example sending him a letter in 2019, at the time of the Yellow Vests crisis. “We wanted to create large municipalities, large cantons, large inter-municipalities, large metropolises. Always bigger. Where are the savings that were sold to us? There is none”.
Close to agricultural circles, fierce opponent of what he calls the “Parisian offices”François Sauvadet sees in Emmanuel Macron a “pure product of technocracy”.
But despite these differences, the president of the assembly of the departments of France since last July calls in a press release published after the first round of the presidential election to vote Emmanuel Macron on April 24. “For my part, there will be no hesitation: I will vote and I call for Emmanuel Macron to vote in the second round because my fight against the far right has always been clear”.
In the region, Gilles Platret, mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône and former number 2 of LR, for his part explained that he would not vote for Emmanuel Macron or for Marine Le Pen in the second round.
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