Here to stay? The Institutionalisation of Emmanuel Macron’s party Renaissance

This paper will discuss party types and party institutionalisation in the case of Emmanuel Macron’s political party Renaissance (previously known as La République en Marche, LaREM). En Marche! was created to support the candidacy of a man, Emmanuel Macron, to the Presidency of the French Republic. It was then turned into LaREM in the aftermath of his election to help produce a parliamentary majority to support Macron’s agenda. LaREM, which became Renaissance after Macron’s re-election in 2022, could therefore fit a number of party types: ‘entrepreneur’ party type (Bolleyer and Bytzek 2013), ‘personal party’ (Kelford and McDonnell 2018) and other personalistic parties (Gunther and Diamond 2003). What does this case tell us about parties as vehicles to support an individual’s personal ambitions and about party institutionalisation and its sustainability beyond the length of its founder’s political career in party systems characterised by voter volatility and public discontent towards political parties? This paper will address these questions by analysing the party’s organisation (party rules, societal embeddedness, and territorial roots) and its ideological foundations (electoral positioning, issue ownership) using party documents and secondary literature.