It is not known how long Gérald Darmanin had been waiting to dig up the hatchet, but a few days before his political comeback in Tourcoing, the Minister of the Interior decided to brandish it in full view of everyone, shouting it high and loud. And even if his friends within the majority swear that he is not preparing for a solitary escape, the first cop in France has made his hole and this, in two stages. Thursday evening, in The Parisian, here he is planting a first banner on the backs of those who cringe at the idea of seeing him assert himself: “I have no lessons in loyalty to the president to receive. I am the only member of this majority which has won all its elections for six years by supporting it, what is more in a popular field. I did not inherit any city, any constituency, I was not elected on a list at the proportional. I am, it is true, different: of modest origin and from an immigrant background, that may be embarrassing.” Some will recognize themselves in the negative described by the ex-LR, such as the general delegate of Renaissance and MEP Stéphane Séjourné, we will come back to this… Once upon a time there was a day in August when Gérald Darmanin exceeded the limits, the tenant of the ‘Elysée swallowed her smile and part of Macronie was left speechless.
Until then, Emmanuel Macron, who encouraged Gérald Darmanin to organize his political event, according to the person concerned, drank whey. “It makes him chuckle to see Gérald disrupt the game of others, of all those who imagine, rightly or wrongly, that things are already written,” says a government executive. Others ? To listen to one of the regular interlocutors of the Head of State, above all Edouard Philippe, who will animate the literary season with his new essay places that say and whose presidential ambitions are sharpening day by day under the nose of Emmanuel Macron. The same goes for Bruno Le Maire who, it must be said, veils his Elysian desires with more roundness by trying to place himself at the epicenter of Macronie. If the President of the Republic indicated in his river interview with the Point that he intended to invest himself in the choice of his successor, it is not to see the suitors begin, already, to roll mechanics. And if, as a bonus, he can avoid employing himself, that’s also taken. There is not yet danger in the house.
Emmanuel Macron was therefore still giving slack. He, the Darwinian, who likes so much “to put his little world in tension” – to understand: to revel in the battles of ego as long as they do not go too far… – procrastinates. Before his meeting with the journalists of the Point, one of his friends had prepared some strong language for him about his putative heirs, including his restless Home Secretary. In essence: having ideas for 2027 is good, but having ideas for 2023 is even better. In short, “children, a little calm!” Only, Emmanuel Macron will do nothing about it. Who knows, because the interview didn’t lend itself to it; who knows, because the president didn’t want to pull out the ruler and tap his fingers yet.
As a first summons, the boss of the Renaissance party Stéphane Séjourné, of whom Gérald Darmanin is not quite the kind of beauty, is still sent to the columns of Parisian to call for unity behind the President of the Republic. An interview almost exclusively devoted to breaking sugar on the initiative of the Minister of the Interior in Tourcoing. Selected pieces: “Our responsibility is to avoid building chapels and rebuilding clans […] action must first take precedence over ambitions”, he declares daily. And to continue: “Gérald Darmanin’s role is to continue to act loyally to the government.” Close the ban. The young delegate general of the presidential party, a former socialist, goes there with a jackhammer. “If Séjourné had not typed, Gérald would not have replied so strongly in The Parisian“, advances a relative of the Minister of the Interior. The bell has rung, the boxing fight begins.
Come Thursday evening, the atmosphere at the Château is not quite the same. Gérald Darmanin has just given another interview, more virile, to The voice of the North. No wonder, since it is the iconic newspaper of its region, Hauts-de-France, but, as things are done well, this daily is also one of the few that refuses that political leaders reread , as is often the tradition, their interview before publication. Nothing better to pass through the filters of Matignon and the Elysée, even if the experienced politician has for some time taken the liberty of not submitting to the validations of the upper floors… That evening, part of the Macronie does not believe his eyes. The situation turns into a fight. “Even in the schoolyard, blows an exasperated member of the government. Obviously, Gérald has not decided to calm things down. It’s really baby Sarko…”
In the edition of The voice of the North of the day, Gérald Darmanin lets go that there is first of all “a subject of listening and empathy” and that “we must beware, today as yesterday, of using complicated words that the French don’t get it”. A criticism, barely hollow, of the technocratic language reproached to Macronie for six years now and which the Minister of the Interior has always abhorred during strategic meetings. Above all, Gérald Darmanin puts both feet in the dish by imagining – perhaps a little more – a victory for Marine Le Pen in 2027: “The fact is that in five years, a victory for Madame Le Pen is quite likely. Faced with this, we will only need one candidate. And that we do not rely only on the winners of globalization and the elected officials of the city centers, because that does not make 51% of the votes. “Pretty likely”, the prediction of the first cop in France does not pass at the Elysée. Emmanuel Macron has, in fact, always hated when his lieutenants make such predictions, and for good reason: Marine Le Pen in power would be synonymous with a failure of the double five-year term of the President of the Republic. Intolerable.
Gérald Darmanin does not stop there in the criticism, hushed but very real, of the balance sheet of the head of state. Here is the former budget minister who attacks the budgetary and economic choices of his own government. “I am pleading, for example, for the postponement of the reduction in corporate production taxes. It is better to do that than to focus budgetary efforts too much on the working and middle classes. This is a discussion that I can have with the Minister of the Economy or the Prime Minister, without necessarily being heard. He continues by scratching the activity bonus set up by Emmanuel Macron, defending that “it is not up to the state to compensate the wages of the little people instead of the bosses”. And, decidedly, to make a splash, Gérald Darmanin only mentions the pension reform to display its imperfections: “What was wrong with the pension reform was that we were asking [aux familles monoparentales] indeed to work more in the current conditions.”
A minister, it shuts his mouth (as Jean-Pierre Chevènement would say)… or, obviously, it exposes his disagreements in economic matters with his hierarchical superiors. Gérald Darmanin, who regrets in the same interview that the members of the government “cannot express positions that are sometimes different from colleagues or from the general doxa”, decided to take the plunge and, at the same time, to free himself from sacrosanct government solidarity. “It’s lunar”, texts a media minister; when another, much closer to Darmanin, retorts: “Those who hit Gérald are either jealous because they could not make such an event, or are not invited on Sunday, or both. Moreover, there are a few -some who always have the feeling that if you don’t come from a big school and you’re not Parisian, you can’t have ambition.” Schoolyard, they said… The atmosphere within the government team has never been so good.
Proof that the attitude of the Minister of the Interior calls out to the top of the State, this Friday August 25, the rumor circulated within the government and the ministerial cabinets that in response to these small provocations coming from Beauvau, Elisabeth Borne could finally go to the North this Sunday after saying the opposite on Wednesday at the microphone of France Bleu. At the Ministry of the Interior, where we got wind of this possible reversal of the situation, we are waiting to see if the Sunday programming should be modified. Suspense… and feverishness.
Gerald Darmanin’s affirmation operation is therefore underway. After these steps aside, who knows what the Minister of the Interior has in store for his big day during which several ministers and his supporters will be gathered around him to reflect on the notion of work, ecology and authority at the middle and popular classes. It’s a safe bet that even those who won’t be there will pay close attention to how the debates are held and to the general conclusion of the host of the day. “Gérald leaves too soon, it’s awkward, notes a member of the government rather classified in the center right and who will not go to the big Tourquennois raout. I don’t have to choose now, I don’t have to line up, already, in a stable.” This is clearly under construction, both in terms of men and ideas. And Gérald Darmanin is not one to back down.