French ex-PM Borne steps aside amid party tensions

Former French prime minister Élisabeth Borne said she is stepping back from the leadership structures of the Renaissance party, citing disagreements with the direction promoted by party leader Gabriel Attal, while confirming she will remain a member.

“I do not fully identify with the line, which is not necessarily debated within Renaissance,” Borne said in an interview with France Inter, cited by Le Figaro. “So I have decided to resign from the National Council of Renaissance, to step back from the executive bureau and to devote myself to the structure I created, ‘Bâtissons ensemble’, which aims to ‘bring people together beyond parties’.”

Borne, whose book “Réveillons-nous!” is set to be published on Thursday, May 7, said she would remain a “simple member” of the party. “I am attached to the activists, and I am attached to the values we carried in 2017, but I do not wish to participate in the party’s bodies,” she added.

Her move comes as Attal ramps up political activity ahead of the presidential election, seeking to challenge Édouard Philippe’s status as the leading figure of the centrist bloc.

Borne had announced her candidacy to lead Renaissance in August 2024 but withdrew four months later under an agreement with Attal, which granted her the presidency of the party’s National Council. Despite this, she has remained critical of Attal’s leadership. “Renaissance is not a party, it is Gabriel Attal’s communications agency,” she told La Tribune Dimanche.

Attal, who succeeded Borne as prime minister in January 2024 and also heads the Macron-aligned group in the National Assembly, consolidated control over the party without the backing of the Élysée.

By Tamilla Hasanova