Of the five sovereign ministries, only that of Foreign Affairs was occupied by a woman. This is the only one that was brought into play in this reshuffle.
The reshuffle of January 11 will not have had a major impact on sovereign portfolios. Eric Dupond-Moretti remains in Justice, Gérald Darmanin in the Interior, Bruno Le Maire in Economy and Finance, Sébastien Lecornu in the Armed Forces. Only Catherine Colonna was pushed out. The Minister of Foreign Affairs is leaving her position in favor of a fifth man, in the person of MEP Stéphane Séjourné.
Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal did not touch the four diehards in the executive, all of whom arrived in government between 2017 and 2020. The only one they dared to replace is Catherine Colonna, in her position since May 2022. The discreet minister, a career diplomat, however, did not make any notable deviations during his mandate. It was also without fanfare that she entrusted the keys to the Quai d’Orsay to her successor this Friday. But in her farewell speech, she wanted to say a few words “as a woman”.
“Equality must also be expressed at the heart of the sovereign domain”
“I was only the second to occupy this position, a position which has had so many holders for so many centuries,” recalled Catherine Colonna on the steps of the hotel. “In these functions, I wanted to state the obvious, namely that equality between women and men can also and must also be expressed at the heart of the sovereign domain where the defense of the most fundamental interests of our nation,” she stressed.
“It will now be up to a man, dear Stéphane Séjourné, to bring the cause of equality to life, and I have no doubt that you will do it with the same conviction as that which inspired me,” she concluded. , beautiful player.
Before Catherine Colonna, Michèle Alliot-Marie had been the first and only woman at the head of the Quai d’Orsay under the Fifth Republic.