Assured of her maintenance at Matignon and in view of a parliamentary return which promises to be difficult, Elisabeth Borne seeks to garner the support of the tenors of the majority by going to their land: after Edouard Philippe in Le Havre, she went Sunday in Pau at François Bayrou.

The Prime Minister, who has made gender equality a priority, attended the arrival of the Tour de France Women in the capital of Béarn.

“It’s essential to raise awareness, to highlight these women’s competitions,” she said after presenting the Sèvres porcelain trophy to Dutchwoman Demi Vollering, who won the Grande Boucle.

“Women’s sport (…) is a lot of inspiration for young girls, for young women. It is also a way of professional integration”, added the head of government before going to the town hall and talk for an hour with the mayor of Pau François Bayrou.

During her successive meetings with the bosses of the MoDem and Horizons, the Prime Minister made “a review of the year, the progress and the way in which we worked”, she confided Sunday evening to the AFP.

“Unity is essential, and even more so in a context of relative majority. We must be vigilant in preserving it,” she stressed.

Confirmed in her post last week, she also expressed her “pleasure” to exchange with the tenors of the majority when there is “less pressure”, the pension crisis, the riots, then the debate on the police having revealed dissonances between the three components of the macronist camp.

“When you are in the relative majority, you are obliged to have at least certainties in your majority”, notes the political historian Jean Garrigues.

Because the fall is likely to be sporting in Parliament, with a very sensitive bill on immigration and budgetary texts for which Elisabeth Borne will have to resort again to 49.3.

“Hold on,” several people shouted at him in the crowd in Pau.

The head of government argues that only “the unity of the majority” will make it possible to face “the excesses, the obstruction of La France insoumise” and the “false pretenses of the National Rally”.

After a turbulent season in the Assembly for this “plural” majority, she is also counting on the “sense of the collective” of the new leader of the Renaissance deputies Sylvain Maillard, who succeeds Aurore Bergé, who has become a minister and considered too divisive.

“Some errors were made on both sides but they were not decisive”, comments Laurent Marcangeli, boss of the Horizons group, a cold weather with the Renaissance group.

The tour of Elisabeth Borne, who must also speak on the telephone Monday with the president of Renaissance Stéphane Séjourné, has a scent of “emancipation” for the Prime Minister. She “resumes her usual role as leader of the majority” that Emmanuel Macron has assumed for several years, underlines Jean Garrigues.

But to secure the loyalty of MM. Bayrou and Philippe do not solve the problem of the relative majority, of which “the key to the solution lies more on the right”, he adds. Elisabeth Borne also exchanged Thursday with the president of LR Eric Ciotti, according to the latter.

It is also for the head of government to put balm after the friction caused by the reshuffle.

François Bayrou would have sought in particular to intervene in the name of political balance, which the boss of the Modem vigorously denies.

Despite these tensions, neither of the two tenors opposed the renewal of Elisabeth Borne at Matignon.

François Bayrou, who would have “adored” being Prime Minister but considers himself “out of the game” because of an upcoming trial, had also warned against a rapprochement of the executive with the right. Aiming without saying so the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who coveted Matignon.

In Le Havre, Edouard Philippe thanked Elisabeth Borne for her visit “as expected as hoped for” and which allows “to consider the future with confidence”.

The Prime Minister in turn praised the “very great qualities of a statesman” of her predecessor, before underlining the “fundamental contribution” of François Bayrou to French political life with his idea of ??”central force”.

But 2027 “isn’t a hot topic at all,” she added. Because the presidential ambitions of each other could in the future justify taking a distance which she would do well.

7/30/2023 23:21:46 –         Paris (AFP) –         © 2023 AFP