“Courageous” and on task: Emmanuel Macron reiterated his “trust” in Elisabeth Borne on Monday, without outpouring but in what can be interpreted as yet another reprieve for the Prime Minister as the end of the “hundred days” approaches supposed to relaunch the five-year term.
“We will have in the first fortnight of July to present the new public finance strategy, the progress on immigration and ecological planning and Elisabeth Borne will do it,” said the head of state in an interview published Monday by the daily La Provence during a three-day visit to Marseille.
This is not yet the 100% guarantee of the extension of his lease at Matignon. But this calendar precision is not insignificant.
On July 14, Emmanuel Macron must take stock of the “hundred days” decreed in mid-April to turn the page on pensions. However, almost everyone in the presidential camp expects a more or less extensive cabinet reshuffle to take place before the National Day. The interview in La Provence therefore tends to confirm that the immediate sequel should be written with the same head of government.
“Of course!”, Concludes the leader of the Macronist senators François Patriat, convinced for a while now that Elisabeth Borne will stay for the moment.
“Does presenting the balance sheet mean being on the move for the future? We still have a little doubt, but indeed, it looks more like a short-term maintenance”, nuance, more cautious, a framework of the relative majority .
Ex-president François Hollande also urges his successor to finally decide to shorten the wait for Elisabeth Borne.
“It’s cruel what’s happening to him,” said the socialist on France 2 on Monday. “This rumor” of reshuffle, “how long has it been going on? Three months, six months? So there is a time when take a decision.”
Especially since, as usual, the president does not shine with his warmth when it comes to complimenting his Prime Minister. It “implements the policy to which I have been committed to the French for more than a year. We have a record of which we have nothing to be ashamed of”, he explains.
Certainly he salutes his way of implementing reforms “in a determined, courageous manner”.
But to the key question of his trust in her, he responds with what has become his favorite syllogism: “She has my trust because she is at the head of the government”. No more no less.
After the pension crisis, the executive is experiencing a certain lull, including in the polls. Emmanuel Macron has multiplied for two months on all terrains.
“The president, he is doing his reassembly on his own, he is everywhere, during this time she is rolling out the roadmap. Him, it suits him well”, deciphers a minister.
Some remain convinced, like this heavyweight of the presidential camp, that the two heads of the executive “can no longer see each other in paint”. And, away from the microphones, the critics fuse on the mode of “management” of Elisabeth Borne.
In the absence of an ideal solution which would make it possible to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly, it nevertheless seems to have obtained this new reprieve.
The Prime Minister is therefore continuing with her roadmap. And sometimes has fun with the names of the contenders for his succession to Matignon.
“They didn’t quite understand the job description, but why not,” she quips in a small committee.
The expected reshuffle, if it takes place by July 14 as the Macronist tenors continue to believe, should therefore concern only a few ministers.
Its magnitude remains to be determined. Ministers from civil society, such as Pap Ndiaye in Education, François Braun in Health or Jean-Christophe Combe in Solidarity, are often judged in the hot seat by several of their peers, but it is not said that the Head of State wants to part with it.
The need for Marlène Schiappa to leave, weakened by her involvement in the Marianne Fund affair, seems to be unanimous within Macronie.
06/26/2023 13:10:27 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP