Elisabeth Borne celebrated her six months at Matignon this week. The Prime Minister is at the head of a government that still has many unknowns. The Borne team includes 41 ministers and state secretaries. But they are only a handful to emerge.
They can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Bruno Le Maire, Gérald Darmanin or Olivier Véran are the best known. But who are the others? Since the beginning of the second five-year term, we have the impression of always seeing the same people. The new faces haven’t really broken through the media sound barrier. Do you know that there is a Secretary of State in charge of the Sea? Another on Digital? Or even who is the Minister of Health?
Not at the top of the pile
Why are they so invisible? First, because their files are not on the top of the government pile. The priorities are elsewhere: purchasing power, pensions, immigration, ecology… In this second five-year term of Emmanuel Macron, time is running out, and the texts more difficult to pass, especially with a relative majority in the Assembly . No question therefore of scattering, the executive no longer has a free hand. And even on ecology, ministers find it difficult to print. And yet, there are three of them to take care of it in government, under the aegis of Elisabeth Borne: Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Christophe Bechu and Bérangère Couillard. And there again, we hear them little or not at all. Agnès Pannier-Runacher has held other positions. But the minister is weakened by the controversy over her family’s interests in an oil company. Not to mention that the two heads of the executive have the unfortunate tendency to take over the big chunk of ecology. We have seen Emmanuel Macron defend his green balance sheet on social networks. It was Elisabeth Borne who was on BFM on Monday evening November 14 to talk about the future of the planet. And again, his intervention did not make the front page.
” General indifference »
Concrete case with a Secretary of State: in front of a small group of journalists, this former deputy who has become a member of the government recounts his last trips, his future announcements. Here he blurts out several times: Anyway, it will be in general indifference… “How many are like him, disappointed to pass below the media radars?
Weak cast
Some ministers had the opportunity to console themselves this week. Elisabeth Borne received the entire government on November 17 at Matignon. No council of ministers this week, the head of state was in Bali, Bangkok then Djerba for international summits. The head of government brought everyone together, ministers and secretaries of state, which rarely happens. Not enough to boost the media impact of a bloated government but with a weak cast. ” There are deputies who have gone out of their way to be ministers and whom we do not hear », Tackles a source at the Renaissance party.
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