According to a report published in L'Opinion on 20 August 2017, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe met with three senators of The Republicans (LR), Fabienne Keller, Jérôme Bignon, and Claude Malhuret, all of whom supported Alain Juppé during the 2016 primary, on 3 August.

Starting in mid-May, a group of a dozen LR senators met regularly to discuss the future of "constructives" in the Senate, and continued after the formation of such a group in the National Assembly.

[1] Keller confirmed the initiative to Le Monde in early September, claiming that about twenty senators close to Juppé and Le Maire were interested in the initiative, enough to form a parliamentary group, and also floated the possibility of other centrist senators joining the presumptive group.

The senators described themselves as "humanists, liberals, Europeans, Girondins and open to the questions of society", distant from the conservatives in The Republicans represented by the Fillonist president of the LR group Bruno Retailleau, who hoped to lead the opposition to the policies of Emmanuel Macron in the Senate.

[3] On 2 October, Claude Malhuret officially announced that he would preside over the newly created Republic and Territories / The Independents group (groupe République et Territoires / Les Indépendants) consisting of 11 senators hoping to defend the centre-right "liberal, European and social" line,[4] with the group officially constituted on 3 October.