Dominique de Villepin makes a spectacular entrance at the top of the ranking of political figures

An entry that did not go unnoticed. Absent from the ranking of the French people's favorite political figures for years, Dominique de Villepin is making a big comeback.

The former Prime Minister of Jacques Chirac received 53% of favorable opinions in the latest Ifop-Fiducial barometer for Paris Match and Sud radio broadcast on February 25, neck and neck with Édouard Philippe.

Could these figures push him to consider becoming a candidate in the 2027 presidential election, almost 17 years after his departure from Matignon and his withdrawal from political life?

"We need a wake-up call and a start. I am here to support this wake-up call, to share an experience, convictions," the former diplomat, however, dodged the issue on BFMTV this Sunday.

In an interview with Médiapart last January, Dominique de Villepin nevertheless let his ambitions show . Asked about a possible candidacy, the man who became a business lawyer for a while after leaving Matignon said he refused to "not be at the forefront" to lead "the fight".

However, "the issue is not whether you are a candidate in an election in the end," he immediately said.

For months, the former tenant of Matignon has been capitalizing on his return to favor. Positioning himself as the defender of a balanced line on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, often the mouthpiece of the position of Arab countries, the former head of French diplomacy can even boast of surprising support for a man who has spent his entire career on the right.

He was thus widely praised by Manuel Bompard, the head of La France Insoumise, who, on several occasions, considered Dominique de Villepin's "word" to be "useful".

It must be said that since his speech before the United Nations in 2003 against military intervention in Iraq, Dominique de Villepin, who has always maintained that he defends a Gaullist vision of the relationship between France and the Middle East, has been viewed favorably by the left as a whole.

The former Prime Minister did not leave only good memories, especially to the socialists. In 2006, then head of government, Dominique de Villepin decided to launch the CPE , the first employment contract, to combat mass unemployment among young people.

Very quickly, this tool, reserved for those under 26 and which allows a trial period of two years instead of a maximum of eight months, put employees and the left on the streets, before young people started to take to the streets . Faced with one of the largest demonstrations in recent decades, Jacques Chirac, abandoned by his own troops who refused to support the text in the National Assembly despite the use of a 49.3, ended up backing down.

The sequence is disastrous for the entire right a year before the presidential election and particularly for Dominique de Villepin, who was then aiming for the Élysée against a backdrop of internal rivalry with Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy .

The senior civil servant then definitively left political life after his departure from Matignon and had to face several legal cases. Clearstream case, overbilling for the company Relais et Châteaux , accusation of having received, with Jacques Chirac, money from African dictators ... The former Prime Minister was however never convicted and his star has not faded on the left or in the Arab world, in which he gives numerous conferences.

On the right, the atmosphere is completely different. After Dominique de Villepin criticized Bruno Retailleau for "overbidding" and "a form of amateurism" in his comments on Algeria on BFMTV on Sunday, the Minister of the Interior responded sharply.

"I don't give a damn," the resident of Place Beauvau said on the sidelines of the Agricultural Show on Monday.

This is because the former Prime Minister could hamper the ambitions that are jostling among the LR for the 2027 presidential election. But in his former political family, not many people have forgotten that Dominique de Villepin had announced his candidacy for the presidential election in 2011 before giving up, failing to collect the necessary 500 sponsorships.

Without a political apparatus behind him, and having broken with his former political family, could the septuagenarian really launch himself into the race for the Élysée? For the moment, he seems to be playing the strategy of small steps. To show his desire, Dominique de Villepin launched his newsletter last week.