What if the right and center primary turned into a real TV series? While the contenders for the 2027 presidential election are still struggling to agree on the modalities of a joint vote, Vincent Jeanbrun has just presented a rather original proposal. According to information from the Journal du dimanche, published this Saturday, November 14, the Minister of Housing wants to organize a primary with successive eliminations, modeled on TV competitions like « Koh-Lanta. » Named « The Great Convergence, » his project plans six weeks of confrontation between candidates, with a thematic televised debate each week, followed by a voter poll over the weekend. On Sunday evening, the candidate who comes last would be eliminated until only one remains. A formula inspired by the system used by the British Conservative Party to distinguish its leadership contenders.
Vincent Jeanbrun envisions a schedule running from November 30 to January 10, much earlier than the January 31 and February 7 dates proposed by Bruno Retailleau. Between five and ten candidates could participate in the competition after obtaining a significant number of endorsements from local elected officials, spread across at least thirty departments, as well as the support of ten parliamentarians. The vote would be open to all French citizens registered on electoral lists, with a financial contribution of five euros per round, up to thirty euros for voters wishing to vote during the six weeks. Votes could be organized online or in physical offices, under the supervision of a high authority composed of seven independent personalities. The minister thus intends to transform a primary traditionally organized in one or two rounds into a succession of events allowing voters to progressively compare programs.
Philippe, Attal, Retailleau, Lisnard, and even Riner invited to participate
The Minister of Housing is thinking big. According to the JDD, he plans to send a letter to Édouard Philippe, Gabriel Attal, Bruno Retailleau, David Lisnard, Teddy Riner, Xavier Bertrand, Dominique de Villepin, and Natacha Polony. Other personalities, among whom Nicolas Sarkozy is not listed but Gérard Larcher, Valérie Pécresse, François Bayrou, Christine Lagarde, Hervé Morin, Robert Ménard, and Gérald Darmanin should also be solicited. Vincent Jeanbrun believes that a competition lasting several weeks would engage the French more deeply in substantive debates and give particular visibility to the candidates. « With this system, we change the paradigm, » he assures, convinced that voters could progressively rally around one personality. The minister also embraces the media dimension of his project, which would allow various TV channels to organize successive debates.
The main stakeholders still need to be convinced. Gabriel Attal, Bruno Retailleau, and David Lisnard are already scheduled to meet their teams on Tuesday, November 17, to prepare a more classic primary, while Édouard Philippe firmly maintains his refusal to participate. Vincent Jeanbrun considers that a candidate refusing such an open consultation should assume the political consequences. But his project raises several practical questions: how to organize six rounds of voting in such a short time, ensure the sincerity of electronic voting, and determine eliminations if the initial number of candidates varies between five and ten? The cost of the operation and the ability to mobilize voters each week also remain to be specified.
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