The former Prime Minister also confided that his defeat in the municipal elections of Pau was “more difficult” than the vote of deputies against the confidence of his government.
He had not spoken since his defeat in the municipal elections. Former Prime Minister and MoDem president François Bayrou said he did not have the presidential election “in his sights”.
“It’s good because I am the only one among all those who speak on the subject, to have said that no, there is no presidential election in sight”, he explains on LCI, a few days after losing the town hall of Pau.
A few days ago, the former Prime Minister was beaten by 344 votes by the socialist candidate Jérôme Marbot, as part of a triangular with the National Rally, after coming in first in the first round of the municipal elections. François Bayrou was elected mayor of the Béarnaise city in 2014, then re-elected in 2020.
“Le plus difficile a été l’échec à Pau”
An electoral defeat and a second political failure in less than a year for François Bayrou who presented his resignation to the President of the Republic on September 9, 2025 after the rejection of the vote of confidence by the deputies.
“I wanted this test of truth. I knew that there was a significant risk that it would go wrong (…), I wanted this moment,” he explains about his departure from Matignon.
If the defeat seemed abrupt after nine months as head of government, the latter assures that “the most difficult thing was the failure in Pau”.
“I devoted myself to it as mayor, it made me sad,” he confides.
Re-elected in 2024 as president of the centrist MoDem party, François Bayrou will remain at the head of the movement at least until 2027.
