Made up of 14 ministers, Gabriel Attal’s government must be completed with the appointment of secretaries of state. The announcement is long overdue and should take place by the end of January.
A week after the appointment of ministers, the second half of Gabriel Attal’s government is still waiting to be named. And time is starting to get long for the secretaries of state who still do not know if they will be able to stay in office or land in another ministry. The anxiety of finding themselves left behind weighs on former members of ministerial cabinets, as one of them confided to BFMTV : “We are officially unemployed while hoping that someone will eventually call us back and tell us that we can come back. It’s still very trying.”
The suspense should end at the end of the month. The government spokesperson, Prisca Thévenot, declared on January 17 after the Council of Ministers that the last members of the government, around fifteen in all, will be appointed “in around ten days”. They will then join the 11 ministers and the three delegate ministers in office since January 11.
Nominations before Gabriel Attal’s speech in Parliament?
The Prime Minister has set the date for his meeting in Parliament for the delivery of his general policy speech: January 30. Gabriel Attal will therefore speak after the Constitutional Council has delivered its opinion on the immigration bill, expected on January 25. And after the appointment of the rest of the government?
It seems logical that the Prime Minister has a complete government before specifying his political course in front of parliamentarians and therefore that the announcement comes before. But the tenant of Matignon has already ruled out the possibility of resorting to the vote of confidence of parliamentarians and risking the future of his government, so no imperative for the executive to be complete by this date? Both hypotheses are on the table according to Politico.
Already known names in the running
The date of the continuation, and end, of the reshuffle is becoming clearer, as are the names of the future ministers who are waiting to be appointed. According to persistent rumors, former members of Elisabeth Borne’s government could remain within the executive, in the same position or in charge of different portfolios. Example with Agnès Pannier-Runacher: the former Minister of Energy Transition could be Secretary of State in charge of Health to support Catherine Vautrin. Roland Lescure, former Minister of Industry, could be in charge of Energy in Bruno Le Maire’s enlarged Bercy. The Minister of the Economy would also like to keep several ministers such as Jean-Noël Barrot in Digital, Olivia Grégoire who was in charge of small and medium-sized businesses or even Thomas Cazenave in Public Accounts.
This end of the reshuffle should therefore, a priori, not hold many surprises, like the announcement of the first half of the government. But if there have been few changes in the appointment of ministers, some decisions have caused a lot of reaction such as the arrival of Rachida Dati to Culture or the attribution of two major ministries, National Education in addition to Sports, to Amélie Oudéa-Castera.