2027 presidential race: Véronique Genest publicly renews her support for David Lisnard

Six months out from the presidential election, the mayor of Cannes has received another public endorsement from the cultural world. On Friday 9 October, Véronique Genest took to her X account to back David Lisnard, mayor of Cannes and leader of the Nouvelle Énergie movement. The actress was sharing an interview of André Vallini on Europe 1, discussing the rise of the Cannes politician in public opinion.

'As for me, more and more people stop me to congratulate me for supporting David Lisnard,' she wrote, welcoming the growing enthusiasm. According to Gala, the former star of the Julie Lescaut TV series has defended this choice for several months, praising the politician's integrity and his ability to reform society in depth.

This is not the first time the actress has appeared alongside the candidate. At the end of August, she was among the nineteen personalities announced for the activist rally held in Cannes, alongside footballer Willy Sagnol, doctor Laurent Alexandre, streamer Sardoche and Mickaëlle Paty, the sister of Samuel Paty, according to Le Figaro. Some of these supporters, the candidate promised at the time, would join the team tasked with 'lifting France up'.

That late-August Cannes gathering was presented as a step of activist consolidation by Philippe Castanet, the campaign director, Le Figaro also reports. The autumn was to follow with the distribution of policy booklets, public meetings and, possibly, a right-wing primary by December, with the stated goal of gradually planting an 'alternative' in the minds of French voters.

A widening visibility

Véronique Genest's endorsement comes at a time when the Cannes politician's visibility is widening. Gala reports, citing La Dépêche, that he now has more than 363,000 followers on Instagram, thanks to what the newspaper describes as his 'jogger strategy'. He also chairs the Association of French Mayors.

His candidacy for the 2027 presidential election is now being tested by several voting-intention polls. According to a synthesis published in early October, pollsters place him in a range from 2% to just over 5%, depending on the scenarios tested, with an upward trend since the summer.

Behind the candidate stands a profile that Gala details: at 57, David Lisnard has shared his life since the summer of 2016 with France Télévisions journalist Jacqueline Pozzi, whom he married on the Côte d'Azur. Father of three children from a previous marriage, the Cannes mayor cultivates a passion for marathon running and English boxing, inherited, the magazine writes, from a home of artists and athletes, with a professional footballer father and a principal-dancer mother.