“A depressurization,” says one. “A white man,” said another. “He was more ready in 2017”, completes a third. This is the story of a mystery that is not anecdotal: how Emmanuel Macron was able to miss the hundred days following his re-election – “the without days” – to the point of undermining the foundations of his second term? The news of recent weeks reminds us once again: this five-year term will drag out its launch for a long time like a ball and chain. You had to think about telling this story: that’s what Ludovic Vigogne, journalist at Opinionin an exciting book full of surprising information and juicy details because they are edifying.
We sometimes forget that politics is primarily a matter of men, with their strengths and their psychological weaknesses, their doubts sometimes, their errors, their cowardice, even when one is, like the president, “a being insensitive to love”, according to the confidence of Michel Houellebecq to Laurent Wauquiez, reported in the book. Macron 1 wanted to change everything, Macron 2 too, in the way of campaigning or organizing the electoral calendar, to end up changing nothing. Macron 1 dominated the political landscape, so many people were indebted to him, Macron 2, from the first moment, has time as an enemy and takes turns attacking some of his faithful – to the point of having his arm twisted, any re-elected president that be it: he must give up appointing Catherine Vautrin after having been so far with her that he had already specified the conditions… of his exit from Matignon, reveals Ludovic Vigogne.
He rubs shoulders with François Bayrou, he gets angry with Edouard Philippe – “I know the grammar of our profession. You can say that I understood the message well. We’ll talk about it later”, says the mayor of Le Havre to Richard Ferrand , which will transmit… “Edouard Philippe is Emmanuel Macron’s obsession”, says Sarkozy; “I did not think that their relationship had deteriorated to this point”, outbids Alain Juppé. Everything is wobbly, like this relative majority in the National Assembly. What to think of the arrival at Matignon of Elisabeth Borne, “between the presidential election and this meeting [le jour de sa désignation]she will not have had a one-on-one with the Head of State to discuss her mission, the team she would have to compose, the way in which they would work together”? What about the election to the perch of Yaël Braun-Pivet against the firm will of the Castle?
“You don’t have more enemies than me, but you have fewer friends”: Nicolas Sarkozy has already warned Emmanuel Macron. There is all this in Ludovic Vigogne’s investigation, and so many other things. Will it all end badly? It didn’t start well, anyway.
The Dayless, by Ludovic Vigogne. Books, 190 pages, €19.90, publication on April 13.
EXTRACTS
“When I see you, it gives me energy”: Macron’s exchanges with Sarkozy
The former president appreciates the one who is now in his place. He has affection for him. He finds talent in her, when times have become so mediocre. He concedes audacity to him, he who has esteem only for romantic lives. He recognizes that he has, since 2017, always treated him very well, and this is a point on which, God can testify, he is more than sensitive. The attention with which Emmanuel Macron follows his multiple legal troubles has not escaped him either. He knows that in the latter, this has not raised the opinion he has of the magistrates. “These people have no legitimacy. They were not elected, they passed a competition. These are senior officials who are never responsible for anything”, would still denounce the head of state to the the following fall at an Elysian dinner that would never end with ex-top cops. He perceived his successor’s tact with Carla, when she confides her anxieties and anger in the face of what could await her husband. Whatever the presidential tone, these words in no way alleviated the very heavy worries of Nicolas Sarkozy, but that was already it.
Obviously, there is also all the personal interest that he derived from this relationship, which appeared, in the eyes of the world, to be fine. He had become a real businessman. As a director of the Accor group or for his multiple consulting activities, he traveled the four corners of the planet. This proximity to the Elysée could only open doors for him. Closer, on a political level, it produced its effect in the same way. The ministers, the deputies of the majority came in large numbers to solicit his experience. They lent him influence. Those who aspired to enter government also made appointments. Before the presidential election, Yann Moix had slipped to him that the Culture portfolio would please him well; if he could help her a little… For his part, Nicolas Sarkozy encouraged those close to him to accept any offer that the tenant in rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré could make to them. “You are not like Bouchart or Woerth, you are bankable”, he had repeated during the winter to Rachida Dati, after rallying to the presidential camp of the mayor of Calais and the deputy of Oise, who had been his traveling companions.
It is true that with his successor, contacts had become almost permanent. “When I see you, it gives me energy,” Emmanuel Macron often told him. […] He had wanted to discuss with Nicolas Sarkozy [sur le couple] that a president formed with his general secretary. His predecessor had told him about his experience. “Me, I was very close to Claude [Guéant]but, at one point, it blocked”, he had told him. Regularly, the head of state told him that he was thinking about separating from Alexis Kohler, so powerful at his side. His predecessor had noticed that he had not taken action.
[…] In August, Nicolas Sarkozy, as usual in Cap Nègre, learned that Christophe Castaner was on vacation, just next door, in Saint-Tropez. He knew the former Minister of the Interior distraught by his failure. He offered to go on a bike ride with him. It was his way of making a gesture. He thought it would change his mind. “Casta” turned him down, but agreed to share his table in Paris in September. Facing him, when the time comes, the ex-boss of the walking deputies would not hide going through a bad period. Some time later, the former head of state would also invite Richard Ferrand to lunch. He wanted to send her a sign of sympathy in the same way. During their exchange, he would slip to Breton: “Nicolas Sarkozy president took care of his friends. I saw, the other day, one of those of President Macron. He does not take care of him. “
Twilight at the Elysée: “Good, well, we lost.”
[Le 19 juin 2022 a lieu le second tour des législatives, qui débouchera sur une majorité relative.] A little before 8 p.m., Emmanuel Macron arrives on the steps of the terrace at the back of the Elysée. “Okay, well, we lost.” Those present are a little flabbergasted to hear such a sentence in his mouth. François Bayrou was a few meters away, hanging on the phone. He approaches. “Even Mignola is Beirut,” he laments, alluding to the fate of the president of the MoDem group at the Palais-Bourbon, eliminated in his constituency of Savoie. Subsequently, in the living room, where a small reception is organized for election night, the president tries to put on a good face. A team of cameramen journalists, who have been following him for eight months now for a documentary produced by Mediawan, are there. And then he can’t do it anymore. With Brigitte, they move away. They isolate themselves for a few minutes in a corner. Come on, he had to get back on his horse, his wife motivates him, he had to. Tonight, the First Lady was less surprised than him. For weeks, she had had a bad feeling. She found that the delay between the presidential election and the legislative elections was too long, that it would give a more local dimension than usual to the seconds. However, in recent years, when the national polls had been good for her husband, the others had not succeeded.
If the Elysée boxer is knocked out, it’s because he didn’t see it coming. A week earlier, he wanted to be confident. Admittedly, the results of the first round were disappointing. […]. But the president believed that it would pass, despite the doubts now of some in his entourage. The next day, to François Bayrou, he assured that there would be more than 300 majority deputies. “280, replied the mayor of Pau. At 260, the government will have to be changed.” […] It was in February, Bruno Le Maire had slipped another confidence, which, with hindsight, would impress with its clairvoyance. It was this: “If Emmanuel Macron has 289 deputies or more, he has won. He has a free hand. If he has 249 deputies, he has lost and he will be under guardianship. Macron’s five-year term will be decided in two months.” We were there. In the middle of a June night, a glass of whiskey in hand, the president wondered how to save what could still be saved.