Bruno Retailleau, leader of the Les Républicains party, is poised to enter the race for the 2027 French presidency. After months of hesitation, he has solidified his decision over the holidays, with an announcement expected in days or weeks.
Bruno Retailleau, Les Républicains senator from Vendée and former interior minister from 2024 to 2025, has long dodged questions about a 2027 presidential run. He often replied with 'colline après colline,' an expression reflecting the caution of his native Vendée region, where no peak exceeds 300 meters. This restraint frustrated some supporters, who felt he lacked visible ambition.
In December 2025, Retailleau vowed to pick up the pace, confiding privately: 'I need to do it to feel liberated.' Surrounded by close aides during the holidays, he finalized his thinking. His circle confirms: 'He has flipped a switch in his mind.' Today, the suspense is over: barring a major surprise, he will be the LR candidate to reclaim the Élysée, fifteen years after Nicolas Sarkozy's departure.
The question had weighed on him even at the height of his popularity at Place Beauvau. In Nathalie Schuck's biography 'Le Cardinal' (Robert Laffont, 2025), he questioned whether he had 'the virus' for the presidency. He reflected: 'To become president of the Republic, you must make a choice that engages every parcel of your being, he theorized. You must consent to it totally in the sense of will, and integrally, in the physical sense, with all your physiological and psychological resources.'
The announcement's timing remains undecided—before or after the municipal elections—and its format. Retailleau aims to represent a revitalized right.
