A handful of days after the reshuffle – or rather the “adjustments” – in July, a member of the government, from the historic Macronie channel, warned, sure of himself: “You’ll see, it’s going to be unmanageable…” She, it’s Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, just appointed Secretary of State in charge of the City and he, a minister who no doubt has some inclination for the divinatory arts. It didn’t take long for his prophecy to come true…
The former MP for Bouches-du-Rhône, close to the Macron couple and in particular to the wife of the Head of State, was the first member of the government to give an interview this weekend to the Sunday newspaper new formula, led by Geoffroy Lejeune. Since the installation of the former boss of Current Values at the head of the Sunday weekly and the historic strike led for 40 days by the editorial staff to demand his ousting, part of Macronie refrained from appearing in the columns of the newspaper. Some ministers even blow having refused an interview this Sunday, especially in “a beautiful cabbage leaf made in a hurry”, slips from one of them.
“I answer the JDD how delighted I was to be invited to come and debate at the Fête de l’Humanité […] We cannot have been charlieto have gone to demonstrate and today tear down freedom of expression […] I am a daughter of Cabu,” said Sabrina Agresti-Roubache to the JDD. This Monday morning on RMC, the Minister Delegate for Transport Clément Beaune condemned, more than half a word, the drive of his next-door neighbor to the Ecological Transition: “It’s not the choice I made I am thinking first of all of the journalists of the JDDto readers who have sometimes lost ‘their’ JDD. Its historical line, its values, its DNA. That’s what I regret. Pierre Desproges said “we can laugh at everything but not with anyone”, I think it’s also true in politics, we can talk about everything but not with anyone or at any time. Everyone makes their choices consciously.”
Beyond the ideological or strategic considerations of this speech, it is also the taking of freedom of the prime minister who questions within the government. As revealed Politico this Monday morning, the new Secretary of State for the City did not bother to inform Matignon, nor moreover her two supervisory ministers Gérald Darmanin and Christophe Béchu, of her participation in the first issue of the JDD Geoffroy Lejeune sauce. Although Elisabeth Borne’s team was only notified for the “rereading” of the interview, i.e. 48 hours before the publication of the newspaper, the Interior did not become aware of the interview until the time of its publication, slips an adviser from Beauvau. The solitary flight of the Marseillaise gave rise to an update between its communicators and the Prime Minister’s office.
Matignon therefore discovered the reverse of the Agresti-Roubache medal very early on. Succeeding Olivier Klein, who had not managed to “print” at his post despite the urban riots of the summer, the elected representative of the Paca region had been chosen in particular for his outspokenness and his ability to be heard in the media. .
“Angry his masters? It’s the least of his worries”
This was without taking into account his overflowing ambition. On the day of the last reshuffle, July 21, she was warned very early of her entry into the government… It remains to be seen, however, the margins of her portfolio. No matter, she contacts the “all Marseilles” in the early morning to announce the happy news. In front of several elected officials, all political colors combined, she puffs out her chest and already appears as the future “Delegate Minister for the City and Housing”. A few hours later, she calls back the same, still swaggers, but this time evokes a post of “Minister Delegate for Housing”. At the end of the day, Agresti-Roubache was finally appointed “Secretary of State, in charge of the City”. The title makes less sparks, and the Marseille phones will no longer ring.
“Marseille is a land of mission for her. She is convinced that any ministerial morocco is a springboard, even if it is ridiculous”, believes to know an elected representative of the Marseille majority, support of Benoît Payan, the current mayor – in a good position to be re-elected in 2026. Everyone saw, not without amusement, that the new Secretary of State went twice to Marseille, in barely eight days in this position. One of her Marseille friends assures us that she is doing nothing other than monitoring the “Marseille en grand” plan, a five billion euro transformation project launched with great fanfare in 2021 and closely watched by Emmanuel Macron. The gossips of the Marseille city see in it the desire to “recover the success of this historic plan”, under the nose of Benoît Payan.
And our source, quoted above, to add: “Do not see in this interview at the JDD something other than the desire to get people talking about her, at all costs. Angry his masters? It’s the least of his worries. She’s always been like that: hitting, hitting, hitting… To exist. She has no desire to ramble (stand square, editor’s note) as we say at home.