La destra francese tra nuovo centrismo, gollismo e sirene radicali

The French presidential and legislative elections of spring 2022 have ratified the deep crisis of the French Republican Right. The result of the Gaullist presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse, below 5 per cent, and the drastic downsizing of the parliamentary group (10.7 per cent) make this crisis appear almost irreversible. Moreover, the republican right reverse has been preceded by the radicalisation of the French right-wing electorate, which now appears more willing to move towards Marine Le Pen's National Front. After all, the Gaullist party has been moving to the right since 2007, with the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy. A shift that since 2012 has failed to prevent the haemorrhaging of part of its electorate towards the radical right. At the same time, a more moderate part of that electorate has preferred to turn towards the centrist offer of Emmanuel Macron. Analogously, that centrist offer worked like a magnet in the Gaullist party, attracting part of the leadership group. Squeezed between the radical right and Macron, internally divided and subject to bitter internal conflicts for many years, in particular since the defeat of Sarkozy in 2012, the Gaullist party now faces the need for a radical structural and ideological reorganisation, on pain of disappearing.