All the world is a stage, Shakespeare wrote. The whole political world is a set-up. No, Emmanuel Macron does not bring Elisabeth Borne, on the evening of Sunday January 7, to talk to her about the floods in Pas-de-Calais. For good reason: he’s already done it. Around 7 p.m., AFP published a dispatch: “The president “spoke” on Sunday with Elisabeth Borne and the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu “to ask them to speed up responses to the situation that the inhabitants of the Pas-de-Calais, particularly with the arrival of cold weather on soggy, or even still flooded, soils,” indicated the Head of State’s services.
An hour and a half earlier, The voice of the North has already published an article with the same information, which the Elysée Palace highlighted and then confirmed to AFP. In reality, the “interview” is a catch-all formula: it was in writing that Emmanuel Macron exchanged messages with his Minister of Ecological Transition.
A little after 7 p.m., BFM spotted the Prime Minister’s car heading towards the Elysée. Quickly, improvise a justification! The president’s entourage explains to the channel that the executive couple “discusses a certain number of important issues, such as the bad weather in Pas-de-Calais and the arrival of the cold wave” – except that the subject has therefore already was processed the same day. We imagine that in the twenty months that they have been working together, the president and the head of government do not need to say everything twice to understand each other.
“I have to ask him to leave.”
For several days, Emmanuel Macron has had Elisabeth Borne wondering. In the middle of the previous week, he saw her, but “he doesn’t know what he wants to do,” says a Matignon advisor. A new exchange has been secretly scheduled for Friday January 5: it will not take place.
But those who speak Macron fluently know: the head of state has been fixed since his wishes to the French. For this exercise, as every year, the words were refined and chosen with care. “2024, year of regeneration,” he said in particular. Can we imagine a president regenerating without changing Prime Minister? He, in any case, does not envisage it. “I have to ask him to leave,” he told his close guard on January 1st. “Cancel the back-to-school breakfast, it’s a bit stupid to bring them all together when you want to change everything,” replied one of his strategists. “If you want to do a big reset, do it quickly.” Except that this president has a weakness: he hates breaking up. Worse: he doesn’t know how to break up.
Finally, the Prime Minister is informed that she will see the Head of State on the evening of Sunday January 7. On Friday, he went to a residence which has never lived up to his name better, La Lanterne; Elisabeth Borne can chomp at the bit and vape. No white smoke on the horizon. “During the entire weekend, confides a minister close to her, Elisabeth Borne’s teams at Matignon are absolutely not sure that this is the end.” Playing cat and mouse? It’s worse.
“He did not say anything to me”
When Elisabeth Borne returns from her meeting at the Élysée around 8 p.m. on Sunday, impatience has spread to the Matignon house. His collaborators wonder if a sentence was slipped, a clue. She only blurts out: “He didn’t tell me anything.”
This is not entirely correct. According to our information, Emmanuel Macron would have questioned the one who is still his Prime Minister on the political situation, the European elections which are looming and the contours to be given to the “great reset”. There is never any question of her fate.
If this was an elegant way to show that she had a special place, it failed. Sadism? Indifference ? Indecision? Rue de Varenne then does not know what the correct qualification is. “It was about planting a seed in his mind, gently, swears someone very close to the head of state. He never summons anyone saying “it’s over”, he always goes back to it several times.” A slightly more nuanced comment from another of his confidants: “This boy had to tear the legs off flies when he was at school.”
There is one who has already seen the film, his name is Edouard Philippe. On June 29, 2020, the day after his re-election as mayor of Le Havre, he saw Emmanuel Macron and Secretary General Alexis Kohler just before attending a citizens’ convention on the climate: it was fog, not a word about a reshuffle , they just agree to see each other again during the week. Two days later, he headed towards the Elysée before turning back. “We were supposed to have a meeting and then it was postponed!”, he said by SMS to a friend. On Thursday, July 2, the Prime Minister will meet at 4 p.m. to discuss “important issues”, right, since it involves drawing conclusions from the Covid crisis. It is so important that even the presidents of the Assembly, the Senate and the Cese, who were asked for a report on the subject, are present. Before starting the meeting, Emmanuel Macron whispered to Richard Ferrand: “I’m seeing Edouard this evening.” Ferrand understands. The Prime Minister will head out the door, or into the open sea towards Le Havre.
The Quai d’Orsay or an airlock?
Would Emmanuel Macron be like Jean-Pierre Raffarin: “will he always be emotional?” With this Prime Minister, the relationship was chaotic, but not enough to not offer her anything. Before receiving her a new and final time on Monday January 8, he tests with his interlocutors the proposals to submit to the almost dismissed woman. The army ? The Quai d’Orsay? “That way, you’ll travel with her! You can eat quinoa together again on the plane,” teased a confidant.
“What do you want to do? Ask the president when Elisabeth Borne finally finds herself in front of him for the fateful interview. Because you know that Prime Ministers can also have ministerial experience in the Armed Forces and Foreign Affairs…” The person concerned does not need three appointments to decline. It has not escaped her notice that all prime ministers before her have had “an airlock” before returning to government affairs. Then, reporting to Gabriel Attal, her former minister… She had a more exciting project.
We think it’s easy to fire your Prime Minister. The first woman appointed to Matignon, Elisabeth Cresson, ended up laughing about it. “He can’t tell me,” she confided afterwards. It was François Mitterrand who received her for the first time, on March 30, 1992, in the wake of disastrous local elections for the left. Foresighted, Edith Cresson arrives with her resignation letter… and leaves with it. He didn’t ask her. In the evening, he calls her back to come back the next day. She goes back, still nothing! He’ll end up telling her the next day. In 2004, François Hollande did not act any more clever when he separated from Jean-Marc Ayrault. He welcomes her into his office the day after nightmarish municipal elections for the socialists. With Ayrault sitting opposite him, he weighs the pros and cons, that’s all, “eye to eye”, as a minister of the time on his way to fame had said, he is careful not to decide . He will communicate his dismissal to her a few hours later. Notice to Gabriel Attal, Prime Minister stories usually end badly.
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