“We have to lock them up!”, François Bayrou repeated in private in recent days, thinking of the employer and union organizations that he wanted to force: to force them to work until an agreement on pensions is found. In his general policy statement delivered on Tuesday, this resulted in the term “conclave”, which is not out of place in a man with a developed Catholic culture.
Limited time is for others. François Bayrou hates having a timetable imposed on him. His reputation precedes him: the man who never wears a watch even had the unfortunate habit, when he was Minister of Education between 1993 and 1997 and if we are to believe the gossip of the time, of waiting in his office to make sure he starts his appointments late. And show his interlocutors that he was thus the master of time. Power is having the time of others.
The Béarnais waited so long before becoming Prime Minister that he does not intend to play Paul Morand’s man in a hurry. “What’s the point?” Consultations, discussions, consultations, negotiations: François Bayrou does not get lost in any rhyme which gives him a minimum of oxygen, at the risk of remaining vague, particularly on the construction of the new budget. Because he wants to remain faithful to the only person who really matters: himself. In this way the DPG resembles him, which allowed him to evoke – at length, slowly – what he believes in, beyond a political situation which escapes him.
Save time, including with Emmanuel Macron. In the middle of last week, the president announced that he wanted to organize a meeting at the Elysée on Thursday January 9 with the ministers concerned by the pensions issue, just to show that the subject was close to his heart and that he intended well remain essential. François Bayrou manages to postpone the meeting to the next day. It’s because he wants to keep his hand, facing the head of state and within his government.
On January 8, the Minister of the Economy Eric Lombard pushed the envelope with the left, which emerged delighted with its feast and convinced of winning its case on the suspension of the pension reform. Meanwhile, the Minister of Labor Catherine Vautrin is starting to infuse another little music: be careful not to break the common base made up of the Macronists and LR.
The risks of slowness
The Bercy-Grenelle battle is then played out on opposite sides: it is not the big financier who pushes for savings and the head of social affairs for concessions with the unions, it is the opposite. With two diametrically opposed methods: a strong media presence on the Lombard side, great discretion on the Vautrin side. The head of government remains silent in public until he regains balance, and his proposal to resume the construction site during the DPG echoes his words from the first day, “resume without suspending” – except that he won a little time and embarrassed the socialists, condemned to demand additional details on its “commitments”.
Save time, including with proportional representation, for which François Bayrou gives no timetable. A long-time supporter of its introduction, he knows that the devil is in the details. Even those who want it absolutely do not agree on the modalities, and the others consider the subject to be anything but a priority.
There’s no point in running… In 2017, François Bayrou convinced candidate Emmanuel Macron to launch a democracy bank, which the president was quick to forget. Seven years later, he took over the construction site there too. “Haste slowly and, without losing courage, Twenty times on the loom put your work back: Polish it constantly and re-polish it…”
When Emmanuel Macron was reluctant to appoint the mayor of Pau to Matignon, he pointed out the risks of slowness: “I don’t want him, he doesn’t do anything!” Where does patience end, where does inaction begin? By listening to François Bayrou, a friend of the president found the beginning of an answer in… A quarter to two hours B.C.the comedy by Jean Yanne: “We can’t do anything at the moment, but as soon as we can, we will do double.”
.