Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign has been boosted by a surprise alliance with veteran centrist François Bayrou.
Bayrou, the perennial “third man” of French politics, surprised supporters on Wednesday by offering to sacrifice a separate candidacy and join forces with the former Socialist economy minister, who is standing on a centrist ticket.
Shortly after the announcement, Macron told journalists he accepted the deal, including the demand for a law to clean up French politics, which he added would be a turning point in the presidential campaign and in “political life”.
“The alliance proposed by François Bayrou is based on values and ideas,” Macron told AFP.
“It fits fully into the programme of renewal and unity that’s been our aim from the beginning and that’s why I accepted.”
Macron said he would meet Bayrou, president of the Mouvement Démocrate (MoDem), on Thursday.
After weeks of suspense, the 65-year-old Bayrou, a veteran of three previous presidential elections, had been expected to announce that he would join the presidential race.
Instead, he said he would not stand but offered to join forces with Macron, 39.
The announcement, described as an unprecedented move, took French political pundits and rival candidates by surprise.
Polls suggest the bulk, though not all, of Bayrou’s support – thought to be worth 5-6% of the vote in a race that may come down to two or three percentage points – will transfer to Macron, increasing his chances of advancing to the second round runoff ahead of his centre-right rival, François Fillon.
Bayrou said the country was at “extreme risk” and needed what he described as an “exceptional response”. What he was proposing, he added, was an alliance of partners and not a move for his centrist party to be subsumed by Macron’s En Marche! (Let’s Go!) movement.
“I have two paths, to stand myself or to look for an unusual solution. I have decided to offer Emmanuel Macron an alliance,” Bayrou told a press conference.
“Perhaps it’s a sacrifice for me, but I feel there are times one has to rise to the seriousness of the situation and consider how to get out of it. It’s not a time for me to think of myself, but of my country.”
Bayrou said the French were “disorientated and despairing”, faced with the far-right Front National candidate Marine Le Pen – currently leading in the polls for the first round vote – who he said was the “threat and major danger for our country and Europe”, and Fillon, 62, hit by allegations over jobs given to his wife and children.
“Never in the past 50 years has the democracy in France known such a situation,” Bayrou said, adding that French politics was riddled with “practices that would not be expected anywhere else”. The presidential campaign, which has been rocked by scandals, had left him “stupefied” and “made a mockery of France”, he added.
“To the right, affairs have been uncovered that reveal not just the existence of privileges and tendencies but the tacit and almost unanimous acceptance of them. For a long time it has been repeated that ‘everyone does it’. But I can stand here and say it is not true and it is defamatory for the vast majority of elected representatives.”
Bayrou said one of his conditions for an alliance with Macron, whom he described as “brilliant”, would be a major clean up of France’s political life.
“French people feel politicians words count for nothing. They have no confidence in the words and promises they hear … we have to convince the French our actions can match our words. It’s a good time to do it even if it is a sacrifice,” he added.
Bayrou, who was an education minister in a centre right government in the 1990s, said he had spoken to Macron a week ago and insisted it should be an alliance and not a subjugation of the “French centrist movement”.
“Perhaps this can be the foundation of a new approach in French politics,” he added.
