The new world has wrinkles. At a time when the 100 days – an expression that refers to (Napoleonic) times that those under 200 have not known – are coming to an end, here is that Emmanuel Macron is subject to contradictory injunctions embodied by two men, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Bayrou.
Back to the future: this confrontation takes us, casually, to 1995. These two have not liked each other, or, to be more precise, hated each other, since the presidential campaign they led together for Edouard Balladur , with the result that we know. Everything opposes them, the strategic line like the character, yesterday like today. When one says white, the other says black, and vice versa. They clashed in front of voters, in the European elections of 1999 and in the presidential elections of 2007 and 2012. During the right-wing primary of 2016, Nicolas Sarkozy was unleashed on a ready-made punching bag, François Bayrou. The very one who had qualified him, while he reigned at the Elysée, of “barbaric child”, in a book titled not by chance Abuse of power.
One day, Emmanuel Macron pulled off a miracle. He was in heaven, of course: the president on the plane which flew to Strasbourg for a tribute to Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in December 2021 had taken the two men and these two had started joking. Only here: the time that passes, the hourglass that empties makes Emmanuel Macron less strong. Certainly, the president plays rivalries between the two former, but there is a life after him, it escapes no one. When he was at the Elysée, Nicolas Sarkozy had theorized that “you had to receive Bayrou when he was weak”. Finally agree! We must now put pressure on Emmanuel Macron because he is weaker than during his first five-year term. Everyone advances their pawns. L’Express told it, Nicolas Sarkozy did not hide behind his little finger during his appointment on June 6: “When France leans to the right, we must appoint a right-wing Prime Minister.”
François Bayrou does not beat around the bush any more, in the remarks reported by Le Figaro : “Some people dream of an RPR restoration government, not me. Let’s not lose our DNA.” He has been saying it for a long time in private, he has not come all this way with Emmanuel Macron for it to lead to the return to power, in a more or less disguised form, of Nicolas Sarkozy’s friends. He now says so publicly.
It is difficult not to find two more antagonistic positions. An issue that goes beyond people is hidden behind this confrontation: when Emmanuel Macron is no longer there, will the river return to its bed? Will the divisions of yesterday, before 2017, become those of tomorrow again?