Edouard Philippe assured that the “incident” of the aborted merger between his Horizons and Agir party, a source of tension with Emmanuel Macron, was “closed”, and reactivated his participation in the common house of the majority, said Wednesday sources within Horizons. The former Prime Minister, who met his party’s political bureau on Tuesday evening, “said that the incident is closed. There is no longer any subject with Agir, the merger proposal no longer exists”, declared the general secretary of Horizons, the mayor of Angers Christophe Béchu.
Edouard Philippe underlined that it was a question of not “serializing while three-quarters of the members of Agir have already joined Horizons: the connection on the ground is made”, added Christophe Béchu. The rapprochement between the two components of the right wing of the majority had been prevented by Emmanuel Macron, creating tensions in the Phillippist camp which perceived this maneuver as purely vexatious. In order to signify his disagreement, Edouard Philippe had suspended his participation in Together citizens!, the structure overseeing the majority for the presidential and legislative campaigns.
A “constant bond”
Tuesday evening, the meeting of around thirty Horizons executives, some of whom were at the new headquarters on Avenue d’Iéna, marked the end of the protest. “If the common house begins to take an interest in the substance and the entry into the countryside, we obviously have a vocation to find our place there”, explained Christophe Béchu. “The link is constant, there is a real desire to work together on the ideas and the substance of the campaign. So as soon as the opportunity arises, we will meet again”, added MP Thomas Mesnier, spokesperson for Horizons.
Philippe’s party, which recruited its first employee on Wednesday, is being structured: 124 municipal committees were launched last weekend, and a hundred more should be by the end of the month. An “assembly of mayors” will also be installed soon, whose president will be destined to become N.2 of the party.