In an article in La Tribune Dimanche, the president of Horizons emphasizes the real-life test that he shares as mayor of Le Havre with that of Meaux, Jean-François Copé has responded to X, thanking his former UMP comrade “for this attentive and demanding reading.”
What could be more natural, after all? A year before the presidential election in which he is a candidate, the former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, the sole heir of Alain Juppé in the political sphere, and the former leader of the UMP Jean-François Copé, one of the last “Chirac’s babies”, find themselves on the same anti-populist line. To the point that the latter ends up supporting the former for the 2027 Elysée election? While the mayors of Meaux (Seine-et-Marne) and Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) have not explicitly stated, their initiatives on this Sunday reflect an undeniable rapprochement. A convergence between the two men, as noted by the second following the publication of his counterpart’s book When Populists Betray the People (Plon, 2026).
In a column published in La Tribune Dimanche, the head of Horizons commends the approach of the former Budget Minister. In a political world filled with “figures wielding poisonous praise, hypocritical encouragement, and intellectual complacency,” Jean-François Copé, in his view, “prefers to speak frankly, even if it stirs a little, but eye to eye, with a sense of formula and irony sometimes harsh to endure.” “None of this precludes respect and benevolence, but truth and conviction prevail,” he asserts, praising this “demand” in the Meldois.
As Édouard Philippe recounts, the former spokesperson for the Raffarin and Villepin governments “deconstructs the methods of modern charlatanism, made up of lies, excessive simplifications, dubious historical references, and cynicism for self-interest, finding its political expression in populism.” He widely views this vision, “amplified by the multiplier effect of social networks, bordering on obscurantism, whether scientific, religious, or political,” drawing a parallel between the approach of Jean-François Copé and his own, developed in the book The Price of our Lies (JC Lattès, 2025), where he targeted simplistic and short-termist solutions. “All of this has a cost: financial (always), political, democratic, and unfortunately sometimes human,” he attacks.
Fueled by their positions as mayors, both him and Jean-François Copé ultimately share the experience of reality, the knowledge of the “best antidote to lies,” according to the former Prime Minister, consisting of “intellectual renunciations, electoral easiness, collective myopia leading to errors in security, education, public finances, adaptation to technological challenges, or European weakness.”
This was an opportunity for Édouard Philippe to defend the barrier created by Jean-François Copé between the right and the “National Rally and its satellites,” aligning with him among the advocates of the “Gaullist and Chiracian heritage.” “The equality that he starkly formulates between the far right and LFI should invite the republican left to the same level of exigency on their side,” argues the former Prime Minister, opposed to any “union of the right,” as the established phrase goes.
In conclusion, “By denouncing the people’s betrayal by populists and proposing milestones on the path to French recovery, Jean-François Copé is doing useful work,” praises Édouard Philippe. Whose lengthy plea did not escape the mayor of Meaux, who thanked his former UMP comrade on X for this “attentive and demanding reading.” “As a mayor, he knows how reality always prevails… and how, in front of it, there is no room for illusions or easy promises,” elaborates Jean-François Copé, probably not without ulterior motives in the light of the 2027 presidential election. This speculation can fuel discussions, without him revealing at this stage who he intends to vote for.
