The delegate ministers and state secretaries of the new government must be appointed by the end of January. As for those leaving, the hope of being reappointed competes with the fear of being left behind.
They had to return their badges and pack their boxes a week ago, the day after the announcement of the tightened government team on Thursday January 11. Since then, the fate of delegate ministers, state secretaries and their collaborators has been pending. Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal must unveil the second part of the reshuffle by the end of the month. In the meantime, the second-tier figures in the Borne government have no certainty about their future.
“If you have a mandate as a deputy, you are still more comfortable for the future,” notes a Secretary of State to BFMTV. “Otherwise, it’s complicated. We know that not all those leaving will be reappointed.”
Especially since behind each delegate minister and secretary of state, there is also an entire cabinet. “We know that it could stop overnight,” admits another Secretary of State. “But if we calculate all the employees who potentially find themselves on the sidelines, that’s almost 200 people. And we’re asking them to wait, without any guarantee.”
“challenging”, “not correct”
“It’s morally hard,” confides a ministerial advisor 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.” “In the evening, you are at the office, the next day at noon, you no longer even have a professional telephone, an email address or codes for your computer,” describes another head of office.
Some members of the former government indeed hope to be reappointed or transferred to new ministerial functions. But for now, all those who were not mentioned in the first list of the reshuffle are treated as leavers. And the hopes add to the anxiety: “Leaving when your minister is no longer in office is normal,” recognizes a cabinet member. “But not even knowing if we’re going to come back or not, that’s really not right.”