It is always surprising to see how blind hope can be, sometimes. Around Emmanuel Macron, several naive or incurable optimists believed that a Prime Minister would be installed at Matignon in mid-August. With the Olympic Games over, it is time to stop wasting any more. It is unthinkable to leave the post of head of government vacant for one more second; the Fifth Republic and the French people who rushed to the polls at the beginning of the summer deserve better.
Several of the president’s strategists have given him their advice: start consultations with the heads of parliamentary groups and parties the day after the Games close. Absolutely contrary to the Head of State’s conviction: “Time is on our side.” Then, he retorted to the wise François Bayrou who suggested calling everyone on August 12: “They’re all on vacation!” “So say so!” replied the Béarnais. “Say that you want to receive them but that they’re all in flip-flops.” Alas! The temptation to wait dominates Emmanuel Macron. Consultations begin on August 23, consultations continue on August 26, appointment of a Prime Minister when the time comes – and too bad if everyone thinks that the time was yesterday.
The “camp of reason”
There is something of Montherlant in the president. “Always putting things off until tomorrow” in the hope that “three quarters of things will sort themselves out”, that is to say that the New Popular Front will finish tearing itself apart, that at the same time, Lucie Castets’ candidacy will be shattered against the tensions caused in large part by Mélenchon’s outbursts, that the feeling will settle in the minds of the French that no one has won these legislative elections… And that, faced with this decomposition, the “camp of reason” that he intends to embody will be acclaimed again.
“He has a lot in common with Giscard, he believes that because he has an idea in mind, it will come true.”
But can chaos restore the power of the one who caused it? This is the heart of the Macronian problem. Dissolving in order to mend, dissolving in order to absolve oneself: all this could certainly have worked if for once the head of state had agreed not to procrastinate. “He has a lot in common with Giscard,” observes one of his political friends. “He believes that because he has an idea in mind, it will come true.” But hemmed in by his fantasy of the perfect solution – the one that would not make him lose a crumb of power -, of the “coup” that according to him can only arise over time, he does not see that each day that passes erodes his credibility and his freedom. While Emmanuel Macron appears hesitant, “lost”, according to a minister, Gabriel Attal, forcibly kept at Matignon, appears conquering, barely elected to the presidency of the Ensemble pour la République group in the Assembly and already a candidate almost declared to lead the party.
Weeks of suspense
Waiting also weakens the Prime Minister from the moment he is appointed. The impossibility of appearing up to the task after weeks of suspense. How can one be as surprising as the surprise announced? Yes, waiting leaves the “all that for that” effect in public opinion, burying any decision, even a good one.
After all, does the president want a Prime Minister? During the first five-year term, he even “seriously” considered eliminating the position, swear several of his close associates. “Emmanuel Macron, like Nicolas Sarkozy, like others, denies the reality of the Fifth Republic: he is a president and a Prime Minister, grumbles one of his supporters who remembers having had a frank argument with the person concerned on this subject. The Prime Minister has a role, he is not an executor, he is not the guy who copies what Alexis Kohler dictates. [NDLR : secrétaire général de l’Elysée]he is a full-fledged Prime Minister.”
A two-headed conception of power that has regularly seemed stinging to Emmanuel Macron, anxious to replace at Matignon the one who, suddenly, intended to have ideas or worse: take charge of a file. He had barely thought of participating in the negotiations to get out of the agricultural crisis when the newly appointed Gabriel Attal was facing criticism from the head of state. An example among others. “This is where the seven-year term that has just ended has failed: the inability to establish the necessary balance between government and presidency of the Republic and it would have been easy because no one in truth thinks of taking the place of the president, Balladur’s time is over”, theorizes a fellow traveler of Emmanuel Macron. The time for regrets, however, has not begun. Emmanuel Macron will do as he has always done: he will wait as long as he pleases.
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