EDITORIAL. Gabriel Attal wants to rename the Renaissance party to strengthen its political identity.

Gabriel Attal, the secretary general of Renaissance, sent an email to party members and officials on Thursday, July 31, asking them about the future of the party, and in particular the name and identity of the movement.

If the French are known abroad for their gastronomy, their heritage, and their culture—and for their "grumpy" nature as well—it would be fair if they were also recognized for their irrepressible habit of changing the names of their political parties. Since the 2002 presidential election, for example, all the major French political parties have changed their names, except for the Socialist Party and the Communist Party. The UMP has been replaced by Les Républicains, the National Front by the National Rally. The UDF has become the MoDem, and Europe Ecologie les Verts has become the Ecologists.

Elsewhere in the world, on the contrary, the names of political parties remain unchanged. The CDU, the party of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has been called that since 1945. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party hasn't changed its name since 1900. And in the United States, Donald Trump's Republican Party has had the same name since its creation in 1854.

Emmanuel Macron's party was founded in 2016 under the name En Marche, then called itself La République en Marche (LREM) between 2017 and 2022 before becoming Renaissance. And, after also leading the Ensemble pour la République coalition for the 2022 and 2024 legislative elections, it is now about to change its name again.

If Gabriel Attal wants to change the name of the Renaissance party, there is both an official and an unofficial reason. Officially, it's because the Renaissance brand is politically weak: according to a poll commissioned by the presidential party, barely a third of French voters correctly identify the name Renaissance. By comparison, 70% of these same voters correctly understood which party the names LFI and RN correspond to.

But the real motivation lies elsewhere: the goal of Gabriel Attal, Renaissance's secretary general since last year, is to shape the party in his own image. In a way, he wants to "kill the father," according to Freudian theory, or at least "kill" the party's founding father, Emmanuel Macron.

And Gabriel Attal is not the only one who wants to cut ties with Emmanuel Macron. When a President of the Republic does not want or cannot run again, it is well known that he loses influence with his own troops.

Like Gabriel Attal, Gérald Darmanin is distancing himself from the President of the Republic. In an interview with the JDD on Sunday, August 3, the Minister of Justice confided that the current political offer "does not fully correspond to his convictions." He thus signifies that he does not fully assume Emmanuel Macron's record. In the presidential camp, in this summer of 2025, the contenders for the 2027 election are beginning to set sail.