Bruno Retailleau’s bid for the leadership of the Republican party (LR) was successful on Sunday after he campaigned against the party’s parliamentary leader Laurent Wauquiez. Party members struggled to find ideological differences between the two rivals, but interior minister Retailleau ultimately came out on top with 74.3% of the vote.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was voted the new leader of the centre-right Republicans (LR) party on Sunday, bolstering his chances ahead of a 2027 presidential election in which many believe he will run.

With just over 74% of the vote in an internal LR election, Retailleau comfortably beat Laurent Wauquiez, who leads the party in France‘s lower house of parliament.

Wauquiez caused outrage during the campaign with a proposal that migrants awaiting deportation should be shipped off to the remote French-controlled islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off Canada‘s coast.

“Mr. Retailleau’s rhetoric is a clear-cut theft of the National Rally,” said RN spokesman Laurent Jacobelli. “If we look at his actions, however, there is a gap between rhetoric and reality.”

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

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