Macron and the party leaders, behind the scenes of the meeting: “It does not come out of here…”

Gérard Larcher has a good appetite. The President of the Senate is not the type to give up a guinea fowl sprinkled with mushrooms and small vegetables. And what about this gravlax salmon as a starter! Alas, the pillar of the Republicans (LR) surrenders this Wednesday August 30, shortly before 10 p.m. An injury suffered this summer forced him to leave the Legion of Honor school in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) prematurely. Emmanuel Macron has been informed of this, and lets his guest take his leave without mentioning the reason for his departure. The Head of State stays with the others. Others ? The leaders of 11 parties represented in Parliament, the Presidents of the two Chambers and the Prime Minister. All locked up behind closed doors to discuss major current issues and the reforms to be carried out.

When he left the former abbey of Saint-Denis, Gérard Larcher can recover his mobile phone – confiscated by a bailiff at the entrance to the premises – and return to civilization. His peers have not finished their office, the discussion will end at more than 3 am. Twelve hours of discussions in the greatest secrecy. No collaborator is invited. No “listening room”, despite the insistence of Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet. The president has also left his laptop in the cloakroom – he usually keeps it, even in the Council of Ministers – and has only one ally as a Bristol board sheet. The only deviation from this rule: a bailiff brings him a note in the evening.

A total camera in the era of transparency. Confidentiality, an antidote to the sterile hiccups of television shows. The exclusion of the public, a paradoxical guarantee of the quality of the debates. Who is this meeting for? The interrogation tormented a minister on Wednesday, anxious to fully understand the objective of the meeting. “Are we addressing party bosses or the French?” Evidenced by the thorny subject of the referendum. A consultation on immigration does not have the same popular echo as on the institutions. “If we talk about decentralization, for example, it is because we assume to be a little out of whack with the concerns of the French”, continues the minister already quoted.

Party bosses in the confidence

Emmanuel Macron quickly identified his target. Several party leaders – Marine Tondelier (EELV), Manuel Bompard (LFI), Jordan Bardella (RN) – do not know the Head of State. Eric Ciotti frequented him before he entered the Elysée, the president knows his thirst for respectability. The day before, the idea of ​​inviting the former presidents of the Republic was as quickly mentioned as it was abandoned during a meeting between ministers. Here is the head of state alone with elected officials as influential as they are far from power. “At Macron, there is a side: ‘In camera, without a cellphone, I am able to return them.’ He trusts the French art of conversation,” says a relative. He is determined to tenderize the meat.

Step 1: reassure. “Do you have a particular agenda item to report?” he asks in the preamble, around 3 p.m. “I don’t understand the purpose of this meeting,” replies the rebellious Manuel Bompard. “I don’t want to trap you,” responds Emmanuel Macron, assuring his good faith. Were the four representatives of Nupes not installed side by side?

Step 2: Create consensus. The Ukrainian file, first on the list, is timely. Emmanuel Macron recounts his conversations with Vladimir Putin, takes stock of the military situation, stands up when maps from the intelligence services are brought. Jordan Bardella, 27, is thus entrusted with information covered by defense secrecy on Ukrainian and Russian military strategies. “I’m telling you this behind closed doors, in total transparency, it doesn’t come out of here,” insists the president. He comments on the maps full of arrows showing military movements and cites a number of dates. Elisabeth Borne observes… and vapes.

Step 3: take it seriously. Emmanuel Macron listens and notes – it is he who will have to stick to the report, he can always request, in case of forgetfulness, Fabien Roussel (PC), who has not dropped his pen for the day. Here he is launched in an “elite” version of the post-yellow vests debates. At the end of the exchange, he promises his guests that the minutes of the meeting will be submitted to them before publication. Way to avoid any trial in instrumentalization or travesty of the facts.

Macron and the seven-year…

Emmanuel Macron knows how much the relative majority and the impossibility of standing affect his authority. His succession makes more than one salivate with envy. With the exception of Edouard Philippe, no declared applicant is present this Wednesday. By cajoling the tenors, the president reminds us that his five-year term – therefore his work – is not over. Really ? When Jordan Bardella evokes the return to a single seven-year term, the president seems to be autopsying his second term. “You are party leaders, you know very well that politics is a balance of power. An elected official who cannot stand for re-election loses all balance of power. The political system then thinks about the aftermath. The limitation to two five-year terms has was a bullshit, it demonetizes the president on a second term. We have a democracy that works well, yours truly was re-elected, but it is rather an exception to the rule. Then, great lord: “It will be up to you to decide.” Monday, speaking to one of his early advisers who was about to leave the Elysée for the second time, he launched: “Like you, I will inevitably be one of those who will have had two pots departure at the Elysée.

No need to cry over spilled milk. There are four years left before the lights go out. When your name is Emmanuel Macron, you have to act or give the impression of doing so. In the room, we scan the news and the priorities of the parties. Here, an exchange on the status of the elected, the change of voting system in Paris, Marseille, Lyon (rather consensual), and decentralization. There, a reflection on the extension of the scope of the referendum – “I remind you that the referendum is in my hand”, recalls Emmanuel Macron, we must not exaggerate all the same. Marine Tondelier cuts her off: “We don’t understand your thing about the ‘preferendum’ [mot employé la veille par le porte-parole du gouvernement, Olivier Véran] !” Emmanuel Macron, tit for tat: “Me neither.”

Eric Ciotti and Edouard Philippe advocate a questioning of the Franco-Algerian agreement of 1968, the president does not follow up. Fabien Roussel regrets the use of 49.3 on pensions, Marine Tondelier talks about ecology, soon she will embark on a fifteen-minute tunnel to ensure that activists are not bad guys.

When Holland invites himself into the discussion

This is the advantage of being together. In the absence of any camera, bigotry gives way to camaraderie. Late at night, the conversation returns to the urban riots. Eric Ciotti is updating his proposal – already applied between 2010 and 2013 – to suspend family allowances to fight against school absenteeism. Olivier Faure, the first secretary of the PS, retorts that the measure had been far from being effective in terms of absenteeism, relying on a socialist report from 2013. “These are your figures”, replies Ciotti, before Faure n again: “These are François Hollande’s figures, for once I’m quoting him…” A few smiles. Jordan Bardella: “The relationship with him is still not that.” And Olivier Faure to bounce back: “Yes, that’s what I have in common with the president.” This time, the room explodes with laughter. Even the arid debate on the territorial mille-feuille evoked by Eric Ciotti relaxes the room. A participant: “You are going to propose the removal of the metropolis of Nice for the sake of simplification!”

The boss of the UDI, Hervé Marseille, agrees. “Macron is not lacking in talent.” The man knows how to combine the art of speaking and listening. For an uncertain outcome. France woke up this Thursday under a relative majority, and the oppositions are not going to put under a bushel their ideological differences with a president at the end of his reign. “Do you agree to renew this format or do you have reservations?” asked Emmanuel Macron at the end of the meeting, anxious to spare elected officials. For now, only the organization of a social conference has been recorded. A global yes would be a double-edged sword. The sign of a Republican consensus… and the admission of the weak political impact of an initiative bringing together so many families of thought.