A few weeks earlier, a relative of Emmanuel Macron rejoiced in front of us: “We no longer have a bench problem!” Quick, quick, a reorganization to integrate into the team all these talents hatched in the shadow of the first five-year term and who are only asking to weigh all their weight on government policy today.
After an unbearable wait, the names of the new entrants or those promoted were finally spelled out in a press release sent at 7:39 p.m., let’s be precise. Among them, some wise politicians, ambitious of course, and even a former chief of staff of Matignon. Confidences on the most political ministers.
Gabriel Attal, “the good student” at National Education
First there was Jean-Michel Blanquer, the “dirlo”. Then, Pap N’Diaye, “the professor”, “the intellectual”. There will now be the good student, Gabriel Attal, to settle in the burning chair of Minister of National Education. Good student, top of the class even. Attal is only 34 years old, but already has a politically well-stocked CV. Marisol Touraine’s cabinet in 2012 when he was only 23 years old, municipal councilor a year later, LREM deputy in 2017, secretary of state in 2018, government spokesperson two years later… What will stop this zealous soldier of Macronie? His ambition is overflowing.
He will have been one of the youngest ministers of public accounts, where three presidents of the Fifth Republic have passed. “He is hungry, he does not hide it, we blow on the side of Renaissance, but he does not ignite like others.” The others, it is in particular Olivier Véran who for weeks had been lobbying to land at National Education and that the Head of State no longer carries in his heart, at least not as much as the young Attal.
But not everything will be easy for this former PS – yet another. “Education is very, very difficult”, warns François Bayrou, like a warning from a former rue de Grenelle to his distant successor. Attal knows that jumping on the back of the “mammoth” is not an easy task, but, in recent weeks, he was preparing for the eventuality. Back to school for him. “He is the one who set the budget for National Education, he knows the strings of his purse. And by August 1, he has already planned to meet all the unions, says a Renaissance executive. He is not a hothead, he knows how to manage. And the same to predict: “It is Gabriel who must embody this beginning of a new breath, after the redesign.” One of her political friends smiled a few months ago when she mentioned the ambitions of the 30-year-old: “He would be able to be a candidate in 2027.” Just that.
Aurélien Rousseau, a “diplomat” at Health
On July 17, Aurélien Rousseau returned his apron as director of cabinet to Elisabeth Borne. Farewell Matignon, this “terminus of shit”! The senior official still has it visibly under his feet. He replaces François Braun at the Ministry of Health. The man will have to deploy his talents as a diplomat to reassure a sector in tension. Aurélien Rousseau has carved out a unifying dircab costume at Matignon. The kind to instill lightness and roundness in a house frozen by the rough management of the Prime Minister. “He does the quilt and cashes in for others,” greets a senior minister.
His relations with the oppositions are of the same ilk. Coming from the left, he is a long-time friend of the president of the socialist group Boris Vallaud. The boss of the LR deputies Olivier Marleix – historical anti macronist – appreciated working with him during the pension reform. “It was going very well, he was very available. We only have good things to say about him,” says someone close to the LR executive.
The new Minister of Health does not discover the matter. He headed the Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency during the Covid crisis. With the president of the region Valérie Pécresse, relations were also fluid. “They had good relations,” we note in the entourage of the former presidential candidate. This art of human relations will not be enough for his new position. Aurélien Rousseau must now exist against the French.
Aurore Bergé, finally her time!
Minister, but what good is it? Why trade the presidency of the Renaissance group for a vulgar folding seat? Aurore Bergé confided in the spring: “I am a thousand times better off where I am, I have a lot more political weight and freedom of action there. There are only two or three positions in government that are more important than the one I have today. No one wants to be a minister anymore. ” A Renaissance executive only imagined him leaving for an expanded Ministry of Culture, André Malraux style.
The former Gaullist minister can continue his eternal sleep. Aurore Bergé said yes to the modest Solidarity portfolio, where she replaces Jean-Christophe Combe. The desire to enter the government was so strong. “Her absolute dream is to be a minister, for her it is the holy grail of a career,” slipped a Renaissance MP in June, summing up a shared feeling.
Farewell to the Assembly, where the former group president leaves a mixed memory. Tails: above-average combativeness and political sense. The deputy of Yvelines was able to carry the voice of her group in this accursed relative majority. Side face: a very relative sense of the collective and a propensity to make political moves. Like when she announced in the summer of 2002 – to the great surprise of her allies – her intention to enshrine the right to abortion in the Constitution.
These grievances caused tensions at the start of the legislature with the two other majority group presidents, Modem Jean-Paul Mattei and Horizons! Laurent Marcangeli. His relationship with Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet was put to the test during the review of the Liot Group’s PPL on pensions. His appointment is also a diplomatic gesture. François Bayrou confided it this week to a relative, joking: “I think it would suit a lot of people for her to enter the government.”