Macron Still a few hours of suspense: the reshuffle of the government of Elisabeth Borne is now expected for Thursday, the time that the executive couple make the final “adjustments”, with Gabriel Attal approached for Education.
According to sources from the presidential camp, the announcement of the new cast, a time hoped for Wednesday evening, will finally take place on Thursday.
At the Elysée, however, nothing filters. The meetings followed one another on Wednesday, on nuclear policy in the morning, preparation for the Olympics in the afternoon, as if nothing had happened.
The only notable clue, the Prime Minister lingered after the second meeting. With no doubt settings to be arbitrated to refine the list of ministers.
These procrastination give the image of a “standoff” between Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne “around a reshuffle which was not supposed to be one”, since the president initially hoped to minimize this sequence, comments a macronist executive.
The Head of State conceded on Wednesday evening, during the traditional aperitif at the end of the session with the parliamentarians of the majority, that ministers and majority were experiencing “moments which are never very pleasant”.
“But you always have to go through them with the maximum of calm, collective spirit and respect for each other,” he said, quoted by participants.
He also called on his camp to “continue to scrap on the merits” and to keep its unity in the face of adversity, for lack of an absolute majority in the Assembly. With two battles in perspective, one ecological, a factor of “political recomposition”, and the other on immigration that “must not be left to opposition otherwise we will let the extremes feed”.
In the meantime, the ministers remain on the alert. The fate of several of them, including Pap Ndiaye, who never really “printed” politically with National Education, seems sealed.
Budget Minister Gabriel Attal, 34, a rising star of Macronie, seemed to hold the rope to succeed him. “With the crisis in the suburbs, there is a need for a return of authority, of order at school which it can embody”, estimates an adviser.
In Health, the future of François Braun, another minister from civil society deemed too little political, did not seem to be settled. In any case, he left the Elysée all smiles after the meeting on the Olympics.
As for the government spokesperson, Olivier Véran, he could save his post, while the names of the Renaissance deputies Maud Bregeon or Prisca Thevenot circulated insistently to succeed him.
On the other hand, the Secretary of State in charge of the Social and Solidarity Economy Marlène Schiappa is, in the opinion of all, about to leave after being singled out for her management of the Marianne Fund.
Just like the Minister of Solidarity Jean-Christophe Combe. He could, according to sources from the presidential camp, be replaced by the president of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly, Aurore Bergé, unless the post ultimately goes to the deputy of the presidential party Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet.
Only one certainty, according to several ministerial advisers, “the president does not want a big reshuffle, the Prime Minister pushes for”.
Large-scale “adjustments” risk going unnoticed in the middle of the holidays, underline some, for whom the maneuver is mainly intended to bring out ministers deemed too weak.
The head of government hopes for her part to regain height, after the pension crisis and the urban riots, with a team more on the offensive and well identified.
For the opposition, the fight remains the same. Maintaining Elisabeth Borne, “it’s a signal that nothing will change”, insists the head of the National Rally deputies, Marine Le Pen.
“We will end up with a government in which the ministers play musical chairs”, asserts his counterpart on the LFI side, Mathilde Panot.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who seemed to hold the rope for Matignon before the Head of State confirmed Elisabeth Borne, could for his part take the title of Minister of State, one more mark of his growing weight within the executive.
For Aurore Bergé, Elisabeth Borne, who has chained the ordeals of fire since her arrival at Matignon in May 2022, has in any case “earned the respect” of her camp by her “strength of character” and “work”.
But for 56% of French people, she remains a bad Prime Minister, even if her image has improved slightly since the start of the year, according to an ELABE / BFMTV poll published on Wednesday. More than eight out of 10 French people believe that Emmanuel Macron “missed” his “100 days” decreed in mid-April after the pension reform.
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07/20/2023 07:16:18 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
