The République En Marche party and the 2020 municipal elections: between partisan affirmation and invisibility

The article analyzes the way in which La République En Marche party has emphasized or/and concealed the label of its candidates in the 2020 municipal elections. The presidential party’s candidates seek to conceal their partisan affiliation, which is politically costly, but cannot avoid a form of partisan visibility. In the first phase of the campaign, the candidate selection process gives strong publicity to their party affiliation. In the absence of local structures and in order to control the process, LREM decided to proceed with the distribution of nominations in a very centralized manner by entrusting it to a national commission. The “marching” candidates have also been strongly reminded of their party identity, especially by their opponents. The candidates are torn in their communes between contradictory injunctions and constraints. Between partisan affirmation and invisibility, the national leadership, as well as the heads of the lists, are thus seeking to build a territorial optimum of partisan discretion.