After Elisabeth Borne forced to resort to 49.3 to the point of wear and tear, Gabriel Attal stopped short by a stupid dissolution and Michel Barnier censored without qualms by the Mélenchon/Le Pen duo after ninety days, the French people are seeing their fourth and final government of the year 2024 installed: that of François Bayrou. Behind this waltz of prime ministers, a more devious mechanism is taking hold. That of a country that the extremes are working to make ungovernable until 2027. Each blockage feeds their discourse: that of a failing State incapable of restoring order. While this new government already no longer has the right to make mistakes, the experience and personality of three of its ministers offer a last chance to break this dynamic by restoring the democratic efficiency expected by the French. Perhaps finally the remedy capable of stopping the populist fever which gains ground with each crisis.
Firstly, on the budgetary level, we can still hope for a recovery in our deficit. By calling it an “endemic evil”, Eric Lombard, new Minister of the Economy, is in line with the Barnier method: discourse of truth, pragmatism, dialogue. Former director general of the Caisse des Dépôts, he knows the figures, but above all the urgency of the situation. Over the weeks of inaction, our country becomes less and less credible with its economic partners. The government and the French will be able to count on an experienced man capable of acting without delay and with responsibility. He will need it to defend before an Assembly prey to fiscal hysteria the only effective response if we want to sustainably recover the country’s economy: reducing public spending, as the French expect.
But it is above all on the security and justice front that we can hope for a true return of republican order, the only one capable of breaking the populist dynamic. First of all, the reappointment of Bruno Retailleau to the Interior, encouraged by the new Prime Minister to pursue his policy on public order and migration control, opens the way to concrete and strong measures. He will be able to prove that beyond words, government parties can obtain tangible results. Then, the arrival of Gérald Darmanin at the Chancellery reinforces this dynamic. Determined to work “hand in hand” with Bruno Retailleau, the former Minister of the Interior is aware of the ills that are gnawing at society and in particular of the daily violence that undermines the lives of many French people. He has already promised to act with “speed and firmness” to restore the authority of the State, justice and the law by guaranteeing that each offense leads to a clear and dissuasive judicial response.
The test of the fight against drug trafficking
A new tandem which breaks with the useless quarrels between the police and justice and finally opens the way to real continuity between the work of the police and that of the magistrates, even in the execution of sentences. A necessary response not only to break the impunity from which offenders too often benefit, but also to strengthen a judicial institution in which the importance of the work accomplished on the ground is not sufficiently appreciated, despite structurally insufficient human and material resources. …
While the fight against drug trafficking is made an absolute priority by Retailleau and Darmanin, this file will serve as a test to measure the effectiveness of this coordinated approach. Despite political instability, these three ministers represent a real chance to restore what millions of French people expect election after election: order in the accounts and in the streets. A final antidote, effectiveness, to counter the discourse carried by the extreme right. An antidote to be administered quickly because censorship will come at the slightest pretext: whether they fail or begin to succeed, the populists will have every reason to bring them down…
Jean-François Copé, former minister, mayor (LR) of Meaux
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