The American media Politico nicknamed him “Macron’s pal”: Macron’s friend. For six and a half years, he was one of the five most powerful men in the Republic, much more influential than most ministers, say those who knew him. The keeper of the most sensitive state secrets and the occult advisor to the president. The head of clandestine diplomacy and the hub of defense advice at the Elysée. The man behind hidden missions in Lebanon, Algeria, Turkey, Belarus… The friend of William Burns, the director of the CIA, and the attraction of Le Siècle, the Parisian private club of which he is a member. On January 9, Bernard Emié will leave his post as director of the DGSE. Fired after being revered. It was time to tell his story, and that of his years at the head of a special service that he transformed.
EPISODE 1 – DGSE, the fall of a master spy: Bernard Emié, the story of an extraordinary rise
EPISODE 2 – DGSE, the fall of a master spy: Bernard Emié, strategist and manager of secret agents
EPISODE 3 – DGSE: Belarus, Lebanon… Bernard Emié, Macron’s secret negotiator
Episode 4: The fall
The story went around the Elysée. During one of their recent interviews, Emmanuel Macron questions Sébastien Lecornu, his Minister of the Armed Forces, about a trip abroad and the messages sent by Bernard Emié, the director of the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE): ” Were you the one who asked him to do that?” “But no, I thought it was you!”, the minister responds point blank. This is what disgrace looks like. Encouraged for so many years, the initiatives of the head of the foreign secret services with radical factions in the Middle East have ended up annoying. “He thinks he is the Minister of Foreign Affairs,” we now hear in the diplomatic cell, the private staff of the President of the Republic. The head of state, however, encouraged him for so long in this exorbitant role, a way of sparking emulation among his advisors. But what was praised yesterday has become boring today. His speech to the leaders of Hezbollah in Lebanon at the beginning of December – he asked them to withdraw their troops from the north of the Litani River, near the Israeli border – irritated. The arrest of four DGSE agents in Burkina Faso, at the same time, came at a bad time again: the intelligence service definitely no longer knows how to deal with these “Putinized” African countries.
With his old-school elegance and his ambassadorial patter, Bernard Emié was the attraction of the defense councils for six and a half years. By not hesitating to contradict everyone with the information his department has. “He spoke after the Minister of Foreign Affairs, then the Minister of the Armed Forces, and he was often much more brilliant,” recalls a participant in this small circle, the real place of power according to some insiders, often meeting on Wednesday mornings. , before the council of ministers.
The director of the DGSE, permanent guest of the committee, was one of the five most powerful men in the State, consider those who worked with him at the Elysée or at the Ministry of the Armed Forces. He sees the president face-to-face every month. He also meets and informs Bruno Le Maire, whom he met twenty years ago with Dominique de Villepin, on economic espionage, and briefed Edouard Philippe before his trips abroad, during monthly three-way meetings with the coordinator of intelligence at the time, Pierre de Bousquet de Florian. “He was also the mentor of Emmanuel Bonne”, Emmanuel Macron’s diplomatic advisor, from 2002 to 2004, remembers Lebanese researcher Joseph Bahout, who met the two men in Beirut. Diving a little deeper into the mysteries of the State means discovering almost everywhere members of the “Emié network”, former collaborators who have become allies over time. The chief of staff of the Minister of the Armed Forces, Patrick Pailloux, was his deputy at the DGSE. At the Elysée, the advisor in charge of strategic affairs, Xavier Chatel de Briancion, presented as the designer of the “anti-Hamas international coalition”, proposed for a time by the French president, was his collaborator in London. The new intelligence coordinator, Pascal Mailhos, was his classmate at Sciences Po. Half a dozen important ambassadors were trained by him.
Allavena, Servent and Rondeau
At Le Siècle, the influential club he frequents in Paris, a cloud now naturally forms around him when he appears. “They all think that I can have confidential information for them,” jokes the master spy to his network of friends, the same ones for thirty years, from businessman Jean-Luc Allavena to military consultant Pierre Servent , including the diplomats Gérard Araud and Charles Fries, the European deputy Nathalie Loiseau and the academician Daniel Rondeau.
“I deal with heads of state, I am not going to go to Washington to offer petit fours to ministers,” he explained in recent months, two of his fellow diplomats report verbatim, to justify his refusal to take the French embassy in the United States, as Emmanuel Macron offers him, at the beginning of 2023. “It’s your decision. If you wish, I will leave. I would prefer to stay. I am ready to continue”, he pleads -he then with the Head of State, in the privacy of their bimonthly meeting at the Elysée. He has been on familiar terms with the President of the Republic since their meeting in London in July 2012. The ambassador to the United Kingdom welcomed the deputy secretary general of the Elysée, responsible for preparing the arrival of President Hollande.
Record almost broken
More eminence grise of the president than king of the Quai d’Orsay: the choice of Emié recounts the takeover of power of intelligence over diplomacy. And the coming downfall of the reckless spy. Because on Wednesday, December 20, the unsinkable had its head cut off. At the last council of ministers of the year, Emmanuel Macron replaced him with Nicolas Lerner, until then director of the DGSI, the internal secret services, from January 9, 2024. The president warned him in November that this substitution would take place. profiled. The fact remains that the shock is severe in the small intelligence community. Within two months, he would have been the longest-serving director of the DGSE since its creation in 1981. Unfortunately, the record will remain held by prefect Jacques Dewatre, director from 1993 to 2000.
The list of grievances against the head of the secret service is known. Not having seen the coups d’état coming in Africa: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger – he defends himself each time, citing several alarmist notes. Having been fooled by the British and the Americans on the attack submarine contract denounced by Australia. Not having believed that Putin would invade Ukraine, where the DGSE waited until September 2021 to send a head of post. Even his detailed knowledge of the countries where he was ambassador is now put to his use: does his proximity to Algiers not hinder a rapprochement with the Moroccans? “Bernard Emié has a good track record, he has served his time. The president wanted someone less ‘Ferrero Rocher’ and more operational,” says an executive source.
Imperial medal
“Someone wants my skin”, he ruminates from the number of Chained duck of August 2, 2023. The weekly recounted the cold anger of the Head of State against the intelligence service, during the defense council of July 29. “We see that the way the DGSE operates is not satisfactory,” Emmanuel Macron snapped that day, regarding the coup d’état in Niger, which was not anticipated by the spies. September 20, another bad omen. The head of the secret services is invited to the state dinner in honor of Charles III, at the Palace of Versailles. He dons his medal of Knight of the Order of Victoria, a superb gold-red-blue badge topped with a crown, he is the friend of the kingdom, French ambassador in London between 2011 and 2014. Surprise, the protocol has him placed very eccentric at the table, between the deputy Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade and Jean-Dominique Sénard, the president of Renault. The public sign of his slight disrepute.
For a time he thinks he can save his skin, thanks to a tip about Wagner. French spies knew in advance that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s militia was going to attempt a coup. “Our partners respect us and they have recently praised the quality of French information,” rejoiced Emmanuel Macron on July 13 at the Ministry of the Armed Forces. According to our information, the CIA even sent a congratulatory letter, which Bernard Emié keeps with him. The director of the American Secret Service, William Burns, has been a friend since their joint stint as ambassador to Jordan, from 1998 to 2001.
“If Emié stays until the end of 2023, he will stay until the Olympics,” a source in the executive recently predicted. Unfortunately for the spymaster, Emmanuel Macron wanted to carry out his big reset French intelligence before Christmas. Leaving Bernard Emié to take with him, at 65, his networks, his interpersonal skills and his memory of French diplomacy.
Epilogue
Why not the private sector? Bernard Emié recently asked a friend. At 65, the spymaster could work for a very big boss or a large French company. From Jean-David Levitte to Gérard Araud, there are numerous examples of these ex-diplomats converted to consulting. “But I don’t encourage him too much in that,” warns Yves Cabana, his best friend: “There would be an anti-climax side compared to what he experienced. I’m not sure that he ‘would like it.’ Among the projects in progress, also that of writing his memoirs, confides privately the one who spent his life in state secrets. “Inch Allah”, he responds, enigmatic, to those who question him about this design.
In Macronia, love stories generally end badly. But the fallen spymaster played the maximum loyalty, to the point of relaying messages from the Ministry of the Armed Forces on the appointment of Nicolas Lerner. So… he can refer to the example of Jean Castex, replaced at Matignon on May 16, 2022, without complaining. On November 28, 2022, L’Occitan was appointed president of RATP. According to Yves Cabana, Bernard Emié would make an excellent Minister of Foreign Affairs.
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