“Did you call me ‘the mule’, or ‘the bubble’? No, because I must admit that when it comes to choosing, I’d rather be a mule.” At the other end of the handset, Olivier Dussopt is fed up. With restraint, as always, we do not change the stripes of the zebra, but he is fed up. It should be noted. We have neither seen nor heard much laughter lately, the Minister of Labor, entangled in fruitless discussions with the trade unions to land the future pension reform.
Here is perhaps one of the reasons: between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, we talk a little less, the starting age at 65, the Touraine reform, hardship and long careers. In short, we breathe a little. If the Head of State has postponed the presentation of this explosive text by his Prime Minister for a month – originally scheduled for December 15 – the truce for confectioners is also a truce for negotiations. “Contacts are slowed down, they are more informal”, confirms the ex-socialist who has become a pillar of the government, who is responsible for the most electric files of this start of his second term, even time bombs. A builder as much as a deminer.
Bubbles, there have been a few within the various governments since 2017. Out of delicacy, we will not list them… He is not part of the lot. On the contrary, even: discreet and a good student, appreciated by the President of the Republic for his loyalty, his dedication and his eleven years of exercise of a local mandate, he climbed the ministerial ranks until becoming, for the first time in May, full minister. Mules, on the other hand, there were probably fewer. In any case, few have been so busy, apart from the acute Covid crisis: candidate Macron has made pension reform – for which he lost points on the way – and the return to full employment priority areas of his campaign. electoral; the day after his victory, he installed Olivier Dussopt at Work to realize his “transformative” ambitions, as we say in Macronie.
In 2023, a (very) full agenda
Between the unemployment insurance reform, voted in November, and the long consultations on pensions, its second half of 2022 was already busy to say the least. But this is nothing compared to what awaits it in 2023. After January 10, the day of the presentation of the text on pensions, French political life will only live to the rhythm of its examination in the two chambers of Parliament. ; and the country, to that of the social movements that will accompany the debates. Du Dussopt day and night, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If the first to lose feathers in the event of a political crash is called Elisabeth Borne, spring will also sound the hour of truth for its Minister of Labor. Emmanuel Macron only likes discussion when it is followed by good execution. Clean and crisp. Better to have strong shoulders and tanned leather. “He’s the right person in the right place, praises his colleague Stanislas Guérini, Minister of the Public Service and former general delegate of La République en Marche. Sense of dialogue, technicality, political sense: it is the essential triptych for the hot files for which he is responsible, and he has all that.”
Worse, here he is also involved in the Immigration bill initially brought by Gérald Darmanin in Beauvau, which has continued to be pushed back in order to find support in the opposition. Here again, it is a question of playing it fine: walking on a ridge line to satisfy Les Républicains without creating divisions within the majority. Let’s not forget that it was the asylum and immigration law of 2018 that created the first major upheavals in Macronie… Good for you.
Faced with the list of his works, Olivier Dussopt prefers to feign modesty. We imagine him shrugging his shoulders too high. “The beginning of the year is going to be busy, but there are complicated files everywhere”, he sweeps away… to better explain, in the second that follows, the catalog of his remaining missions: the conclusion of the consultations of the unions on the sharing of value in the company will be returned to him at the end of January, he will open negotiations around the governance of unemployment insurance, lay the groundwork for France Travail…
“I don’t like to be caught off guard”
2023 therefore looks like a double or nothing for Olivier Dussopt. Perhaps even the acme of his political career. The Ardéchois may not be a novice, this calendar filled with red dots, coupled with being the first defender of the flagship reform of Macron’s second five-year term, could be a bit tetanizing. “I’m not the type to put more pressure on myself than that. If I’m anxious, it’s because I don’t like to be caught off guard, it’s a stress that aims rather to master everything well” , he replies. Perhaps this is why he campaigned at the beginning of December, in the wake of Elisabeth Borne, to leave more time for negotiations on pensions when the president wanted to go quickly…
Back in 2017, November 27 precisely. Just appointed Secretary of State at Bercy under the supervision of Gérald Darmanin, Olivier Dussopt enters the hemicycle of the Senate to defend Emmanuel Macron’s first finance bill… against which he had voted six days earlier on the benches of the PS group in the Assembly. He knows he is expected. He feels watched. Isn’t it the perfect punching bag for these senators who are as tricky as they are experienced? Especially since becoming familiar with the political and technical language elements of the government in barely 72 hours is not easy… “I remember that he was very anxious before the session opened, slips the Renaissance deputy Mathieu Lefèvre, at the time Darmanin’s budget adviser, who attended the debates a few centimeters from him. Well, he had worked his thing so hard that he turned them all over, I absolutely found that outstanding.” A mule coupled with a judoka. Everything Emmanuel Macron expects from his Minister of Labor in 2023.