On the right, David Lisnard wants a primary to avoid "running into a wall".

David Lisnard is reviving the idea of ​​a major primary for the right and center before the 2027 presidential election. The LR mayor of Cannes believes that a selection process has become essential in the face of the proliferation of candidacies and admits he wants to exclude those he considers responsible for past failures and "linked to the Macronist system".

Invited to LCI for his political comeback in Cannes, David Lisnard argued for the "broadest possible" primary. According to him, the current fragmentation of right-wing candidacies risks leading his camp "into a dead end" and favoring a second round pitting Marine Le Pen against Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

“Selecting and eliminating candidates”

“We need to select and eliminate candidates, especially those who have led us to failure and are linked to the Macron system,” declared the president of Nouvelle Énergie. He is thus directly targeting a segment of the centrist bloc, at a time when Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal are performing well in the polls.

David Lisnard also criticized Bruno Retailleau and Édouard Philippe, whom he deemed overconfident in their ability to win naturally. "If they think there will be a triumphant march to victory, in my opinion, they are operating in the realm of wishful thinking," he warned, calling for more "realism" and "pragmatism."

Still relatively unknown in opinion polls and absent from the recent major presidential debate organized by the Medef (French Business Confederation), the mayor of Cannes is thus seeking to establish his liberal platform and his candidacy in an already crowded political landscape. For him, the primary must now serve both to select a candidate and to clarify the right-wing political landscape before 2027.