Jacques Serais, edited by Gauthier Delomez
By changing its name to Renaissance on September 17, the presidential party was transformed at the same time into a political party where you now have to pay to join. If the militants have until December 31 to join and vote in the internal elections, the change is however far from obvious.
It is a paradigm shift for the presidential party. On September 17, the Republic on the Move (LREM) became Renaissance, and on the occasion of this name change, Emmanuel Macron’s party was transformed into a political party where you now have to pay to join. Finished, therefore, the simple click to be a member of the movement: 30 euros for the annual membership, 200 euros for the monthly contribution of the parliamentarians.
However, the change is far from obvious in a party that is now like the others. By the very admission of a Renaissance executive, “not everyone has necessarily understood that it was necessary to rejoin and go to the cash register”.
The issue of the number of members claimed
Some members of the government were even called to order, like Gérald Darmanin. The Minister of the Interior, for example, had to take out his checkbook at the end of a recent executive office. As for the 166 deputies, the new boss of the party Stéphane Séjournée did not hesitate to notify them of the new rule during a meeting at the National Assembly. Many were not up to date with contributions.
Officially, there is nothing to worry about Renaissance which has just launched a vast communication campaign in particular to call back those who adhered to En Marche. There remains the challenge of the size of the number of members which will be claimed by the end of the year. With an unacknowledged objective: to quickly exceed the bar of 20,000 members, the threshold recently reached by Horizons, the party of Édouard Philippe.