Pierre Person, Deputy general delegate of La République En Marche! (LREM) has confirmed he will step down from his executive role and insisted “nothing has changed” since the party gained power in 2017. Mr Person, who helped to mastermind Mr Macon’s presidential victory three years ago, insisted LREM is “no longer dynamic enough” and hoped his decision would serve as an “electric shock” to “give new life” to the party.
In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde, he said: “To give new life to the party, I am choosing to resign from my job at the direction of LaREM, leaving my post of deputy general delegate and no longer sitting on the executive board.
“I become again a militant among the militants and obviously remain a member of the parliamentary group.”
Mr Person was elected in the National Assembly to represent Paris in 2017.
The 31-year-old added LREM “needs to have its own reason to exist” rather than just “copy and pasting the message of the government”.
Mr Macron received a huge wake-up call in June after his party was humiliated in the local elections.
His centralist LREM party failed to win any major city after a resurgent Green Party and its left-wing allies made huge gains.
The Greens secured victories in Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Besançon.
Prior to the election in May, 24 MPs walked out of his party and shattered the French President’s overall majority in parliament.
Mr Macron now has just 281 members in the lower chamber – well short of the 289 needed for an absolute majority.
At the height of Mr Macron’s popularity following his election win in 2017, his LREM party had a commanding majority with 314 MPs in parliament.
The French President is seeking a re-election in 2022 and when asked if the party would be ready in two years’ time, Mr Person said “not in the current state”.
He said: “If the party wants to survive in the long term and to exist in the ‘common house’ being created with our allies, it must better define what it represents.
“It must have its own ‘raison d’être,’ [purpose] without carrying only in ‘copy and paste’ the message of the Government.”
(Additional reporting by Maria Ortega)