François Bayrou, the only candidate, was re-elected for three years as president of MoDem, during the centrist party congress on Saturday in Blois. Founder of the Democratic Movement in 2007, the mayor of Pau received 88.1% of the votes of the delegates. “I am very happy with this result, because it is a testimony of confidence and a testimony of faith in our future,” declared François Bayrou during a short speech, in front of around 600 people gathered in the Salle du Jeu of Palm of Blois.
“We have, this weekend, a mission: to carry out a project of hope for France” in the face of “our main enemy”: “resignation and defeatism”, explained François Bayrou. This “enemy serves the other enemies, all those who want to transform this dissatisfaction into detestation and hatred, all those who want to find scapegoats in our country, in our national community,” he continued.
Four government officials
The MoDem, which claims some 12,000 members, is holding its Congress on Saturday and Sunday in the town of Loir-et-Cher. Interventions from Gabriel Attal, the head of the presidential majority list for the European elections, Valérie Hayer, and the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, are notably expected. The centrist party has four representatives in the government: Minister Marc Fesneau (Agriculture), Ministers Delegate Sarah El Haïry (Children, Youth and Families) and Jean-Noël Barrot (European Affairs) and Secretary of State Marina Ferrari (Digital) .
The February reshuffle was marked by the episode of the real-false entry into the government of François Bayrou, who announced that he would not join Gabriel Attal’s team even though his name had been circulating for several days for the portfolio of National Education. The MoDem also has 50 deputies within Emmanuel Macron’s relative majority, four senators and six European deputies.