The first phase of the reshuffle unveiled Thursday gives pride of place to personalities from the right. The end of “at the same time”? The new Prime Minister brushes aside the accusation.
This has escaped no one’s notice: among the 14 ministers appointed on Thursday January 11 for the first phase of the reshuffle, few figures come from the left. Two former ministers of Nicolas Sarkozy, Catherine Vautrin and Rachida Dati, joined Gabriel Attal’s government, while Darmanin, Le Maire, Lecornu and other Béchu, all from the right-wing benches, remained in office. To the point that the left found a little nickname for the new team: “Sarkozy IV government”.
“Macron is resurrecting Sarkozy’s UMP. What audacity, what excess, what disruption! The alliance of the rights is sealed”, mocked LFI deputy François Ruffin on X. The casting of this new government is indeed part of the continuation of a political sequence for which the presidential majority sought the support of the parliamentary right, in particular for the vote on the immigration law in December.
Gabriel Attal defends a balance of forces
A right-wing government? The new Prime Minister, however, brushes aside the remark. “What I want is action, action, action. Results, results, results. And then it’s energy: women and men committed to 200% to meet the expectations of the French”, reacted Gabriel Attal Thursday evening on TF1.
“I am not here asking my ministers to empty their pockets to show me the political map of their party,” continues Gabriel Attal, a fervent defender of overcoming the left-right divide. “You do have, in this government, indeed, people who have a right-wing sensibility,” he concedes. “And you have personalities who have a left-wing sensibility,” he nuances, before quoting the new Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné, effectively part of the PS until 2016, or even the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond- Moretti and Minister of Higher Education and Research Sylvie Retailleau.