This is not a transfer of power. On September 11, in a lounge at the Hôtel Matignon, there are those who are about to leave, those who have just arrived, and a man who would have the right to eat for two. His name is Jérôme Fournel. He is the chief of staff of the resigning Minister of the Economy. He is the chief of staff of the new Prime Minister. Michel Barnier and Bruno Le Maire are there, around the table.
One has not forgotten that the other had supported him during the right-wing primary in 2021. Moreover, on the very day of his appointment by Emmanuel Macron, just before the news became official, Barnier called Le Maire. And they talked about Jérôme Fournel. “It will be for final settlement,” joked the Minister of the Economy, as annoyed as he was cocky. Having two chief of staffs stolen in six months to strengthen Matignon means that “his” team and “his” way of working must have some value. For the transfer of the first – Emmanuel Moulin, asked to serve Gabriel Attal – Emmanuel Macron had taken care to warn Le Maire himself. Times are changing… On the evening of September 5, on the steps of Matignon, the new head of government will talk about “changes” and “ruptures”. The next day, he will entrust the management of his office to Jérôme Fournel. Does nothing have to change for everything to change?
Jérôme Fournel therefore replaces Fournel Jérôme
This is just a goodbye. On September 13, Jérôme Fournel is still in the courtyard of the Ministry of the Economy, hands in his pockets in the front row next to the ministers, for Bruno Le Maire’s farewell speech. Look, the secretary general of the Elysée, Alexis Kohler, pops in, as does Emmanuel Moulin. Everyone has been, is or will be at Bercy. All these people – a eco-system.
Let’s summarize: to prepare the next finance bill, the one that was warned would be impossible to complete, Jérôme Fournel replaced Fournel Jérôme, and this is probably how we can measure the extent of the change that occurred after the dissolution and the legislative elections. Michel Barnier is well aware of the image problem that this brings. He first looks for a prefect, offers the position to Michel Cadot, who declines. Before realizing the obvious: he needs an expert in public finances. “But, assures his friend and predecessor Emmanuel Moulin, those who are ready to make this kind of sacrifice can be counted on the fingers of one hand. If you are looking for people who have experience of the government machine, certain skills, in an age group between 40 and 60 years old and who accept the ethical constraints, there are not 36 of them!”
Already, some ministers from the right are laughing: “That means we weren’t in total disagreement from the beginning, right?!” The obstacle must be quickly overcome. “Politically, it is the Prime Minister who will set the line, but he was aiming to have technically at least in the first phase someone who has everything in mind on the budget,” explains a close friend of Michel Barnier. The former European Commissioner has an extensive address book, but some of the profiles he could have thought of were not ready to make a trip from Brussels to Paris with a potentially early return date.
Jérôme Fournel, 57, is not part of the Prime Minister’s historical past. When the latter, on the day of his nomination, at 7 am, gathered at his Parisian home some of his potential future collaborators, he was not there. He then received Emmanuel Moulin. The latter in turn whispered Fournel’s name to him. So much for the best specialist and too bad for those, dawn marchers, Macronists dreaming of revolution, whom this endogamy left speechless: “Kohler, Moulin, Fournel… The guys are carbon copies, hard workers, technical, rather likeable, disinterested, convinced that the State belongs to them, and finally emasculating the slightest heterodox inclination.”
“Alexis Kohler respects him”
At least this nomination will not prevent Emmanuel Macron from sleeping. First, because he does not sleep, or sleeps very little. Second, because he knows Jérôme Fournel better than Michel Barnier. They crossed paths a long time ago. When Gérald Darmanin proposed his name for the very sensitive position of Director General of Public Finances, in May 2019, the president approved. Finally, because he knows that, when he shows his desire that the policy of fighting unemployment and attractiveness not be called into question, he will find in him one or even two attentive ears.
Suffice to say that the scent of cohabitation so vaunted for a time by the Elysée is not likely to be so fragrant as to give you a migraine. No one is disoriented. Jérôme Fournel knows the way to the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, he used it when, with Darmanin, it was necessary to defend the withholding tax in front of the president. “Alexis Kohler respects him, between Bercy products, we respect each other”, describes a member of the executive. “They are not intimate”, tempers one of their mutual acquaintances.
But they may become so during their weekly Monday feasts. Because the first day of the week – and this should not change – is the day of the double lunch: Emmanuel Macron shares his table with the Prime Minister, while Alexis Kohler shares his, in his office, with the chief of staff at Matignon. Then, before coffee, the latter join the former. “And if you play it smart, you can even have two desserts,” Moulin assured Fournel when he visited him at Matignon on September 10 for a handover between chief of staff. Beyond this little trick, it was also the burning issues, the names of collaborators on whom to rely and details on the functioning with the Elysée that the departing minister revealed to the newcomer. Of course, nothing will be quite the same as before: thematic meetings, starting with the one on Friday on the implementation of public policies, should no longer have any reason to exist in these times of “non-interference from the Elysée Palace” – an expression coined at the Palace.
“It’s Bercy’s stranglehold on Matignon”
In this crazy period where those who walk on their heads are as numerous as those who want to stay in line, there is at least one certainty: he will not end up as a deputy of the New Popular Front – like one of his predecessors at Matignon, Aurélien Rousseau. Jérôme Fournel has always served right-wing ministers: Luc Ferry, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Dominique de Villepin, Luc Ferry, Gérald Darmanin, Bruno Le Maire. “Today, the number 1 senior civil servant in financial matters”, underlines Raffarin. “One of the best connoisseurs of Bercy as a whole”, adds Valérie Pécresse, Minister of the Budget between 2011 and 2012. “A true liberal who loves the State, a quiet force, one of the most beautiful intelligences I have met”, adds Darmanin.
“The guarantor of supply-side policy: this is the symbol that Macron has succeeded in his coup with the dissolution, he who did not want to be in cohabitation under any circumstances”, grumbles the left. A socialist oil does not put it in the cogs : “As Chaban said in 1971, it continues so it doesn’t change. They panic: someone has to cover up what has been done.” No regrets, then.
Jérôme Fournel knows how to behave – dressing himself remains a question mark, so he received a voucher for a Jonas & Cie suit, like those of the president, when he left Darmanin’s office, where people were amused to see him dressed more like the ace of spades. A senior civil servant, even one used to political jousting, is there to implement the boss’s choices. But it counts, the mark of a man. “The appointment of Fournel is Bercy’s stranglehold on Matignon,” summarizes a former member of the government. “He is a techno Macronist, the guardian of the budgetary temple.” Guardian of a collapsing edifice, welcome to Matignon.
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