It’s crazy how the dissolution has really clarified everything! This second five-year term is definitely like no other. The last reshuffle with Gabriel Attal at its head is already far away, the European elections are barely over when the president decides to call legislative elections. With the result that we know… More than ever, behind the scenes, some are learning to dodge the trip-ups, others are familiarizing themselves with the art of conspiracy, in short, everyone is preparing for the post-Emmanuel Macron era with rigor and determination.
Macron-Le Pen: one meeting, two atmospheres
As is often the case with adversaries, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen have a great deal of curiosity about each other. Although their meeting at the Élysée during the consultations led by the President of the Republic was not the first, it nevertheless left its mark on both participants. From the point of view of the Head of State, it was “their best meeting”, according to a Macronist strategist who still can’t believe the list of qualities rattled off by the Élysée host. The RN leader was judged to be “serious and calm”.
As for the latter, she privately confided that she was a little surprised by the flood of questions Emmanuel Macron bombarded her with. One sentence also surprised her: “I think I have a path,” the president is said to have whispered to her. A sentence that probably seemed a bit affirmative to Marine Le Pen, given that the political situation is, in her eyes, unfavorable to the president. It’s a question of point of view.
Hollande-Faure, the uncompromising thaw
The two men had not spoken to each other for years… Between the first secretary (and former chief of staff of François Hollande) and the ex-president, a shared hatred. As we remember, François Hollande had little taste for the “uncompromising” inventory of the socialist five-year term signed by Olivier Faure, who sought to save the furniture in the PS as best he could. All that is in the past. The two men exchanged a lot this summer, mainly by message. “It’s the thaw”, confirms the entourage of the ex-head of state. Before the Olympics and the departure of each on vacation, the two men shared some strategic visions for the start of the school year, and the elder even allowed himself to give advice to his former collaborator. Will he listen to them?
At the end of August, when the Insoumis unleashed without warning anyone the platform on the dismissal of Emmanuel Macron – thus angering everyone at the NFP – Hollande picked up his phone to contact Faure and ask him to step up. This will be done. “He is in the union, he is aligned with our strategy”, believes a close friend of the first secretary of the PS. All’s well that ends well? Impossible is not socialist.
Borne forgets Attal
In July, when he became head of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly, Gabriel Attal told Elisabeth Borne that he would not aim for the leadership of the party. No matter! The former Prime Minister therefore did not consider it necessary to inform her successor at Matignon before declaring her candidacy in The ParisianAugust 21.
Macron and the ten guys
After the left-wing delegation led by Lucie Castets, the leaders of the “central bloc” arrived in a scattered order at the Elysée on August 23. A few minutes before arriving, they realized something. Gabriel Attal, Edouard Philippe, François Bayrou, Stéphane Séjourné, Marc Fesneau, Laurent Marcangéli, Laurent Hénart, François Patriat, Hervé Marseille, Claude Malhuret… They were only men. It was better to avoid the group photo.
These ministers ready to re-enlist
The number of ministers who would like to continue serving the country is not decreasing… It must be said that Emmanuel Macron is not necessarily dissuading them. The president has hinted to his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, that it is not out of the question that he will remain at the Quai in the future government.
Eric Ciotti: finally alone!
Emmanuel Macron had never received Eric Ciotti one-on-one when he was president of LR. The Niçois had perceived a lot of bitterness, he was still complaining about it a few weeks before the dissolution to a Macronist tenor. Here he is president of a parliamentary groupuscule, and as such he was entitled to his meeting, alone with the head of state, on August 23. Finally!
Marine Le Pen: there without being there
In July, the deputies elected a new bureau to the National Assembly, with a majority for elected members of the New Popular Front and no place for the National Rally, which nevertheless constitutes the first group in the chamber. A situation denounced by the president Yaël Braun-Pivet, as well as by Emmanuel Macron or François Bayrou. And a false pretense? Yaël Braun-Pivet’s office reiterates one point: any group president (Marine Le Pen is one) can attend bureau meetings if they wish.
Jean-Michel Blanquer: We can’t say no to Macron
This is where he dates the beginning of his “descent into hell”: Jean-Michel Blanquer, then Minister of National Education, refused to be the head of the list for the regional elections in Ile-de-France, in June 2021. “I need you, we need someone with weight to face Valérie Pécresse”, the president stressed. Blanquer persisted in his refusal, writing to Emmanuel Macron. No response. Worse, “he flew into a gigantic rage. (…) It was clear from his mood that I was basically ungrateful, that it was unheard of that I allowed myself to refuse his request, that I would have to understand soon who had made me minister and that what had made me could unmake me.” He recounts the episode in The Citadel (Albin Michel), a book which retraces his governmental experience in great detail.
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