2027 Presidential Election: A Year to Clarify and Tell the Truth to the French. Bruno Jeudys Editorial

In some weeks, there is a sense of the end of an era. This one has that feeling. A Prime Minister mired in the National Assembly, advancing without counting the risk of getting bogged down further. A president confined to the international stage to continue to exist. The five-year term continues but the momentum is broken, as if political time had already shifted elsewhere.

Amidst this void at the top, a survey by Elabe for La Tribune Dimanche tough questions emerge: which president do the French really want? The answer is stark: 53% see none. More than one in two French people are distant from a political offering that is omnipresent, saturated with books, meetings, and stagings. It’s a black hole. It’s also an opportunity for whoever can inhabit it.

Because the expectations are clear. Honesty reigns, overwhelming (76%). Speaking the truth, even when it disturbs. Especially when it disturbs. Next comes proximity (55%), the ability to speak with the French people and not above them. Then courage (48%) and determination (46%). Four words like a program, or rather like an indictment against years of calculated caution and ambiguities. The ideal age continues to decrease: 47 years. France is aging, but it wants to believe in fresh energy at the top.

Meanwhile, the stage is being set. Gabriel Attal and Bruno Le Maire publish books. A ritual gesture of those who want to exist in the debate without yet fully engaging. Bruno Retailleau consults his supporters with the method of a patient builder. François Hollande prepares with the tranquility of men who have nothing left to lose.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon loudly presses the accelerator, as if speed alone were a program. Édouard Philippe, on the other hand, has crossed the re-election threshold in Le Havre and can display the calm authority of a winning mayor. In the RN, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella attempt a balancing act: she having lunch with bosses, he presenting his fiancée in a staging that speaks volumes about the normalization efforts made.

Himalayan in the polls but walled in their political isolation, they seek a way out of the ghetto without denying what put them there. But beyond this dance, a reality asserts itself. The priorities of the French are known: purchasing power, security, health. Different expectations depending on the voters, but a common demand: concrete results. Tangible results.

However, in 2027, this reality will be rough. Choices will need to be made. Revising certain welfare state benefits? Probably. Extending efforts on pensions? Most likely. Facing the impact of AI on jobs? Inevitable. Confronting the demographic challenge head-on? Essential.

The year ahead is not an ordinary pre-election season. It is a year of truth. For those who claim to govern, they are required to finally say what they will do. And for the French, they are called to choose with full knowledge. This time, for real.