Gérald Darmanin will be part of Elisabeth Borne’s new government. It is now official, the Minister of the Interior remains in office.
Emmanuel Macron and his Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne have decided. The name of Gérald Darmanin appears on the list unveiled by Alexis Kohler, the secretary general of the Elysée, this afternoon. The one who has been Minister of the Interior since 2020 therefore remains in his post, place Beauvau. This is not a big surprise for the faithful of Emmanuel Macron, who has been very involved in the presidential campaign and has become one of the most publicized ministers of the government. However, its renewal will not only make people happy.
It is not by chance that, last March, Gérald Darmanin put on track a bill of orientation and programming providing the main lines of the strategy of the Ministry of the Interior, for the five years to come. , regarding safety. The minister had every intention of being able to carry this project through to the end and ensure his own succession. It must be said that Gérald Darmanin was able to make himself useful to the Macron camp. We remember the BFMTV program “Programme against program”, in between the two rounds of the presidential election: facing Jordan Bardella, Marine Le Pen’s RN lieutenant, it was Gérald Darmanin who had been chosen to defend the Past President. He had then marked the spirits by evoking his mother “housekeeper” and his origin “worker”.
A maintenance criticized
However, Gérald Darmanin is far from being the most popular figure in the government. And for good reason: since 2017, he has been the subject of successive complaints of sexual violence, for facts dating back to 2009. The complainant, Sophie Spatz, accuses Gérald Darmanin of rape, harassment and breach of trust. While he was in charge of the legal affairs department of the UMP, Gérald Darmanin allegedly asked for sexual favors in exchange for “services”. On September 13, 2021, the investigating judge in charge of the investigation declared the end of the investigations and did not indict Gérald Darmanin. On January 13, 2022, the Paris prosecutor’s office requested a dismissal. The current minister was the target of another complaint, dating from 2018, filed by a resident of Tourcoing, for abuse of weakness: she accused Gérald Darmanin of having forced her to have sex in exchange for obtaining a housing and a job in 2015, when he was mayor of the city. The investigation was also dismissed.
The appointment of Gérald Darmanin to the Ministry of the Interior, on July 6, 2020, had triggered numerous criticisms, in particular from the side of feminist activists. Beyond the accusations of which Darmanin is the subject, he found himself directing the services in charge of the investigation which targeted him. Subsequently, his unconditional support for the police, his categorical refusal to speak of “police violence”, earned him as much support on the right as criticism on the left. Wednesday, May 18 on CNEWS, the police unionist Linda Kebbab (UNIT SGP) called for “the continuation of the action which was started on the previous mandate”. But the maintenance of Darmanin in Beauvau will also cause its share of criticism and disappointment.
Is Gérald Darmanin a candidate in the legislative elections?
Thursday, May 5, the current Minister of the Interior announced his candidacy for the legislative elections for the presidential majority, in the 10th district of the North. A decision that Gérald Darmanin announced to have taken “after having spoken about it with the President of the Republic”. He will surely campaign, but will withdraw, in the event of victory, for his deputy Vincent Ledoux, who had already replaced him in the Assembly from 2020, when he was first appointed to Beauvau. In the event of defeat, on the other hand, it would be a disavowal for the Minister of the Interior. The constituency where he is running, however, had placed Emmanuel Macron in the lead in the first round of the presidential election.
Who are the last interior ministers?
Here is the list of Gérald Darmanin’s predecessors at the Ministry of the Interior:
- Christophe Castaner (October 2018-July 2020)
- Gérard Collomb (May 2017-October 2018)
- Matthias Fekl (March 2017-May 2017)
- Bruno Leroux (December 2016-March 2017)
- Bernard Cazeneuve (April 2014-December 2016)
- Manuel Valls (May 2012-April 2014)
- Claude Guéant (February 2011-May 2012)
- Brice Hortefeux (June 2009-February 2011)
- Michèle Alliot-Marie (May 2007-June 2009)
- François Baroin (March 2007-May 2007)
- Nicolas Sarkozy (June 2005-March 2007)
- Dominique De Villepin (March 2004-May 2005)
- Nicolas Sarkozy (May 2002-March 2004)
- Daniel Vaillant (August 2000-May 2002)
- Jean-Pierre Chevènement (June 1997-August 2000)
- Jean-Louis Debré (May 1995-June 1997)