A new minister should succeed Agnès Firmin Le Bodo at the Ministry of Health. Names already mentioned during previous reshuffles would be in the running again and would have a serious chance of being appointed to the government.
One of the ministries at stake during this reshuffle is undoubtedly that of Health. Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, who until recently was the Minister Delegate in charge of Territorial Organization and Health Professions, was appointed head of the ministry after the resignation of Aurélien Rousseau on November 20. Chosen to act as interim, MP Horizons should not be reappointed in Gabriel Attal’s government. A departure which seems inevitable after the revelations of Médiapart of an investigation targeting the minister for gifts sent by the Urgo laboratory and improperly received when she was a pharmacist.
A question then arises: who will be the new Minister of Health? The response is being awaited by health professionals as this will be the seventh minister appointed to this portfolio since the start of the Macron era. The health sector has been presented as one of the government’s priorities since the head of state’s first five-year term, but the importance given to this area is in contradiction with the comings and goings at the head of the ministry.
Two names already expected to be back in the race
The future Minister of Health could come from the ranks of Edouard Philippe’s party, Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo herself being a member of Horizons. Two names of Philippists stand out among the rumors: that of Frédéric Valletoux, deputy for Seine-et-Marne, and that of Arnaud Robinet, mayor of Reims and president of the French Hospital Federation (in succession to Frédéric Valletoux of elsewhere). Both were already cited among the most likely hypotheses to take over at Health during the July 2023 reshuffle, before being eclipsed by Aurélien Rousseau.
After repeated false hopes, the two politicians are “actively campaigning” to (finally) integrate the government according to a Horizons framework. Politico. The political newsletter, however, adds that Frédéric Valletoux “then seemed to have a slight lead among the bookmakers” over the one who succeeded him at the French Hospital Federation.
A Renaissance MP also cited
What if another name passed again in front of Edouard Philippe’s two foals? A third hypothesis is making headway for the Ministry of Health according to Le Figaro which quotes Renaissance MP Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet. This early Macronist has notably taken a position on one of the key future subjects in the field of health: the end of life. She signed a column published in September in The Expressand also supported by Frédéric Valletoux, to defend the distinction between assisted dying and palliative care and not to confuse the two in the same text.