Until then, he was verbose. Until there. The lunch is coming to an end and this member of the government from the left sees appear on his telephone, like the whole table of journalists he receives, an alert from the Parisian : at the Council of Ministers, a few hours earlier, the President of the Republic reframed his Prime Minister about his strategy to fight against the National Rally.
On Sunday, on Radio J, Elisabeth Borne had described the far-right party as “heir to Pétain” with “dangerous ideology”; Tuesday morning, before the government, Emmanuel Macron took advantage of his opening remarks to recall that it was useless to attack the RN with “words from the 1990s which no longer work”. Difficult, indeed, not to see a direct link there… The minister in question, very comfortable with the idea of recounting the content of the meeting in which he participated, then closes himself: he assures that he has never heard such remarks. Close the bench. Should we see a form of embarrassment, in front of what strongly resembles a blow in the stomach?
The Head of State has opened a debate within his family
On the merits of the case, the macronie is not so surprised by the exit of its leader. As a member of the government recalls, “it’s not new to him, whether in 2017 or 2022, he has always insisted on both levels: the history of the party and the ineffective proposals of the RN”. Admittedly, but by positioning himself solely on this second aspect during the Council, the Head of State opened a debate within his family.
Some ministers and parliamentarians say they are fully convinced that the response improvised by Elisabeth Borne has become, over time, perfectly incapable of changing the minds of RN voters. “Macron is not wrong, blows a Renaissance deputy, left wing tendency. People who vote RN don’t care whether it’s a Pétainist party, or whether they are pressed on the fact that they are racist and anti-Semitic. C It may be unfortunate but that’s the way it is. Just saying that was never enough.”
Only, for several members of the presidential party, Emmanuel Macron seemed, in his speech, to consider that historical or moral attacks were no longer necessary. At all. “The demonization of the RN does not work, but at the same time, it is this argument which made vote for Macron in 2022, estimates the deputy Renaissance Laure Miller. It is always useful to make this kind of reminder: it is necessary to put the RN in difficulty on everything that bothers them, their history as the weakness of their proposals. An executive of the Macronist group does not say anything else: “Macron’s demonstration is not valid! This party erases its history. Saying it may not make a voter move, but it must be done all the same. .” Emmanuel Macron, he, traveling to the Globsec forum in Bratislava, seems to take a slightly different position: “We can no longer beat the far right in our democracies simply with historical and moral arguments, first of all because this far right is is transformed […]“Respectabilized?
The Matignon tenant is suspended
Beyond the strategy, it is also the way in which the President of the Republic has put on the table – from the Council of Ministers – his differences with the head of government who is questioning. Emmanuel Macron is sufficiently experienced in the exercise to know that such a tirade in front of his ministers will not remain in the secrecy of the Ambassadors’ lounge. How not to imagine that it would not weaken Élisabeth Borne in this period when the tenant of Matignon is on borrowed time? A Renaissance leader in the National Assembly has his own idea about the projection: “The Prime Minister is charred, she has no more breath. Macron wrings her out and sends her this message: “Stop playing politics.”
Among the pro-Borne, we alternate between euphemizing the presidential exit, collective incomprehension of a formula taken out of context… and we are referred to the response of the Head of State in Bratislava, assuring that the Prime Minister still had ” all his confidence.” But, as we note within the government, even if the reframing was not premeditated, even a clumsiness on the part of Emmanuel Macron, it is not the sign of a perfect agreement between the president and his Prime Minister.
And if the maneuver aimed, as many macronists theorize at each Elysian scratch, to “put his world in tension”, who really benefits from the sequence? This Wednesday, the executives of the National Rally had a great time attacking Élisabeth Borne, pretending to be in the wake of Emmanuel Macron. “As he has not yet chosen what he is going to do for July 14, he is scratching his head, analyzes a minister. In any case, this is proof that he has not chosen to strengthen it ” We all pay for being in a transition period. Basically, it’s a shame to put a goal against our camp, when we could have simply said nothing. We are weakening and, at the same time, time, we strengthen the RN.” How come that wasn’t the plan?