Some 2,700 ministerial visits in Seine-Saint-Denis. Since the creation of the department in 1968? Not at all: these 2,700 visits took place from May 2007 to April 2018, or… 20 trips per month! And five per week, every day his minister. The ex-deputy François Cornut-Gentille reveals this eloquent figure in his book Knowing to be able. Get out of democratic helplessness (Gallimard, 2021). “Beyond the practical aspect, those who choose this destination seek to demonstrate that they are not in denial and that they do not hesitate to confront the difficult realities of the field. However, the jobs of time are designed so that ministers have time to see anything”, denounces the former parliamentarian who pretends to wonder: “in a department where the problems are gigantic, the services of the State not other emergencies Make sure these trips go well? “
Governments pass and the phenomenon continues. If Prime Minister François Bayrou, since his flight for Mayotte at the end of December, put official trips on hold, the 35 members of his government continue to crisscross France with very marked travel. From December 23, 2024 to January 23, 2025, the ministers made more than 166 trips, or nearly five per member of government. Perfectly millimeter highlights: planning organized in several “sequences” punctuated by visits to factories, schools, businesses or new equipment; round table with different actors; “Republican lunch” bringing together local officials; Session of “tense micro-tense” during which the minister is expressed in front of the press … “Basically, all this is similar to the preparation of a small play or a film scene”, summarizes the ex-ministerial advisor Emmanuel Constantin who devotes a chapter of his book to it In the state machine (Gallimard, 2023).
For the former senior official, a member of several ministerial offices under Emmanuel Macron, this “energy riot and means” responds to several imperatives. “Like that of showing that we are on the ground attentive to citizens, to communicate on public policies and actions carried out by the government, to acquire notoriety. Sometimes all this at the same time,” he explains, while asking an essential question: do these visits really fulfill a democratic function? Yes, without a doubt, replies Roselyne Bachelot, inexhaustible on her countless trips throughout her political career, especially as Minister of Culture, between July 2020 and May 2022. “People would not understand that we do not come to meet them. You do not imagine all the requests that come from the field!”, Exclaims the one who says he has been in good school with her “almost forty years of Chiraquism”. “It would still be incredible that the Minister of Culture was not at the opening of the Avignon Festival, does not attend the comic book fair in Angoulême or does not communicate on the culture pass,” she continues.
The former deputy of Hérault Patrick Vignal, a master in the art of organizing these trips, also judges them unavoidable … under certain conditions. “In my constituency, I received no less than 54 ministers during my two and a half mandates! But I happened to reject requests from those who refused to get out of a simple sterile technocratic relationship,” explains the ex-elected official, who continues the anecdotes. Like the day he welcomed Bruno Le Maire then at the head of Bercy. “I said to myself: Bruno’s problem is that if he comes to shake the hands of the citizens, he will be afraid that we would take his fingers,” says the one who will finally succeed in training him in a bakery turned towards insertion or arranging a time of exchange with young entrepreneurs. “We also played pétanque and stopped in a small Camarguais restaurant,” he continues before chaining on the visit of former Minister of Health François Braun, embarked by a nurse to tour his patients; on that of the former Garden of the Seals Eric Dupond-Moretti, who engaged in a long question-answer session with elected officials and inhabitants; Or on that of Gabriel Attal, then Minister of National Education. “I wanted to make him meet 15 teachers who had complaints to bring back. I had to fight with the rectorate for it to be done,” he continues, denouncing our “politico-administrative system which spends his time protecting himself to the detriment of citizens”.
On January 17, it was Elisabeth Borne’s turn, a new host in rue de Grenelle, to go to the Hector-Guimard high school in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. The visit of this establishment specializing in the building and arts professions is linked at the footsteps, in the presence of the rector, the prefect, local elected officials, management staff of the establishment jostled by the cameras. Between two workshops dedicated to stone size or ornamentation sculpture, an inspector approaches the minister to alert her to the difficulties of recruiting teachers. Shortly after his intervention, an oil from the rectorate approaches the speaker and launched him with a tense smile: “Didn’t you have more positive comments to make?”
All the actors say: these moments are often more like communication operations than real times of exchange. This drift, capable of accentuating the gap between citizens and politics, is not new. The former director of the National Office of Forests of Franche-Comté, Michel Badré, remembers the displacement of Edouard Balladur that he had been responsible for organizing in October 1994. One of the “sequences” planned was indeed taking place in the Jura woods. Three weeks before the visit, the Matignon cabinet sets its conditions: choosing a well -stuck path “because the Prime Minister does not like to have mud on his shoes”, oriented towards the east “so that the photographers do not have the sun in front of them at the time of the shots”, in a forest of leafy, “that the general public prefers to conifers”, and organize a “real forest worker” possible manifestation! “The specifications were respected, with a cop hidden behind each tree positioned by the prefect,” says Michel Badré. The Prime Minister’s Sylvestre “resource”, immortalized by the press, lasted a quarter of an hour. No one was raised that the latter had arrived and left in a convoy of two large helicopters.
With the minister, the large organizer of these visits is called the chief of staff. One of them, who officiated several years in this position under the governments Castex and Borne, evokes “chronophagous missions”. Starting with the composition of the thick “minister file” which brings together a multitude of information such as mini-biographies of local elected officials, the amount of the budget for building the new equipment in the process of being inaugurated, elements of the speech to be pronounced, a point on the different news of the territory … “During his descent of a car, the minister can be arrested by the local press on a event that has gone unnoticed in Paris but it is. ! “We must vary the places, check that the planning planned makes sense and will serve the message that we want to convey, but also know where we set foot politically taking into account the label of elected officials who receive us,” he continues: “And all that sometimes for nothing! Because last minute cancellations are frequent, especially when another big news falls. We then know that our trip will be inaudible. “
Because this is the objective of never losing sight of the organizers: capturing part of the media attention, particularly by targeting the regional press. “If there are 43 ministers, it is to have someone in regional daily press every day,” said Emmanuel Macron to the government in 2021. It happens that journalists disrupt the well -oiled communication plan by asking a question “off topic”. “What is the point of going to the depths of the Larzac if it is to have an exchange without any relation to the displacement? It is a shame for us because we do not check our box but also for the territory which receives us and does not feel considered”, is annoyed an old chief of staff. On January 23, Rachida Dati went to the Palais de Tokyo, in Paris, to inaugurate a new space devoted, in particular, to the mental health of young people. At the end of the visit, the famous session of stretched microphones comes. After a first question on the subject of the day, a journalist engages on the renovation of the Louvre, announced a few hours earlier. “I was sure! When I saw you so many, I said to myself” they did not come to wonder about the support plan for young creators or on art therapy “!”, Crocs the minister who ends up responding despite the attempts of her advisers to shorten the exchange.
Some members of the current government, such as Gérald Darmanin or Bruno Retailleau, are known for their mastery of ministerial trips. For other less capped figures, beat the pavement does not always guarantee the return on investment. Especially since they often come up against a bone … namely their supervisory minister. A former member of the cabinet of Laurent Pietraszewski, former state-secretary of state in charge of retirement and health at work, relates tense exchanges with his counterparts to the full-practice minister, Elisabeth Borne: “Above all travel, we had to submit our program and the announcements planned, always, not to walk on their plates. Otherwise, beware of the back of the stick!”
The career interests of each minister also come into play. “During the last dissolution, we saw that abandoning the field could pay cash. If they want to have a chance to continue on a mandate as a deputy, the ministers must be present at the end of the week in their territories. This is why, when the weekend approaches, many manage to make a trip on their journey” explains this other former “chief CAB” who praises the colossal work of the prefectures. “The latter are responsible for all preparation and security and manage all the workings, from arrival at the Minister’s station at 9:48 am on his climb on the train at 5.50 pm,” insists Laurent Pietraszewski. Some, like that of the Loiret, are particularly in demand … because close to the capital without being in Ile-de-France.
The complexity still rises from a notch when the departments in question are plagued by disasters. The symbolism of the State going to the bedside of the victims remains extremely strong in France, as once again proved by the recent controversy around François Bayrou. The fact that in last December, the Prime Minister goes to the Pau municipal council rather than Mayotte ravaged by Cyclone Chido was perceived by many as a misstep. “In the event of a drama, the minister who does not move is immediately conspired,” confirms Roselyne Bachelot who, from the time when she was Minister of Ecology, remembers waiting a week before going to the Gard and the Hérault affected by floods. “The helicopters, the cars, the security forces were mobilized to come to the aid of the populations. There was no question of embarrassing their work. However, the fact that I delay my visit was considered a lack of attention or even indifference!” When the displacement is tempted, you should know how to resist … but not always. A real minister’s dilemma.
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