Delapart, France’s hottest YouTuber, kicked off 2025 by wading into politics. In a 15-minute video posted to his channel, Delapart mentioned he helps same-sex marriage, abortion rights, tighter immigration controls, harder approaches to crime and opposes drug legalization — broadly aligning himself with mainstream right-of-center politics in France.
The social gathering that traditionally represented that camp, Les Républicains, seems to be attempting to leap on the bandwagon.
Les Républicains have been in dire straits since Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 centrist marketing campaign blew up the principle left-right divide in French politics. After Macron gained the presidential election in 2017, many Les Républicains supporters decamped both for his social gathering, now referred to as Renaissance, or the far-right Nationwide Rally that Marine Le Pen has labored to current as a extra polished, skilled political drive. The Les Républicains candidate within the 2022 presidential election, Valérie Pécresse, gained a paltry 4.78 p.c of the vote within the first spherical.
Getting Delapart on facet could be a coup for a political motion that has appeared misplaced and in determined want of recent blood to woo younger voters.
So when Les Républicains’ parliamentary chief, Laurent Wauquiez, shared Delapart’s video, it set off a flurry of hypothesis {that a} competitors for his backing has begun, although Wauquiez’s group didn’t reply to a request for remark. Pierre-Louis Tanzer, head of Renaissance’s communications operations, informed POLITICO that “all events have seen that he’s beginning to focus on politics.” Tanzer described Delapart as “politically engaged citizen.”
Each Renaissance and Les Républicains have struggled to catch the youth vote. Simply 13 p.c of voters 34 or youthful backed Macron’s social gathering within the first spherical of final yr’s snap election, whereas Les Républicains scored 8 p.c with that demographic, in line with a Harris Interactive ballot. Each events registered their finest scores with voters older than 75.
