It is a position that no one, perhaps not even him, seemed to be able to dissociate him. After eight years with Emmanuel Macron, the secretary general of the Elysée Alexis Kohler will however leave his functions in a few weeks. That often considered as the country’s “vice-president” since 2017, with considerable weight on all the decisions taken by the Head of State, goes away for Société Générale, of which he will take up the deputy general management from next June. And if this departure was already acted for several months, doubt hovered as for the identity of its successor. But the name of Emmanuel Moulin, at the heart of the cogs of Macronie since 2017, seems to have finally imposed himself as obvious, before being confirmed by the Elysée this Thursday, March 27.
For this position, it is impossible to imagine something other than a perfectly seasoned person to the highest functions of the State. Emmanuel Moulin is of this caliber, at least judging his CV. By studies, already, with a triptych ESSEC – Sciences Po – ENA which is reminiscent of that of its predecessor at the General Secretariat of the Elysée. It is also in Sciences Po that, engaged in Rocardian movements, Emmanuel Moulin made two meetings which will follow him even more than 30 years later: Edouard Philippe and Alexis Kohler.
Close to Nicolas Sarkozy then Bruno Le Maire
Despite his first steps on the side of the liberal left, which will also lead him to become the pen of a young stone Moscovici within the PS, it is on the right that Emmanuel Moulin will know his first importance. And this, by joining in 2007 the cabinet of the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Christine Lagarde. Two years later, in 2009, he became economic advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysée, where the rebound necessary after the subprime crisis was his first real confrontation with the highest state responsibilities.
Appreciated in the entourage of the former head of state, Emmanuel Moulin nevertheless sees his ascent in the administration cut net by the defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential election of 2012. “I was not offered anything. We were hawkends,” he said in the columns of World In 2020. After a few years in the private sector with Eurotunnel and the Italian Bank Mediobanca, the opportunity for him to return to the heart of the State was presented in 2017 with the election of Emmanuel Macron. It was then that he found himself the right arm of another Renégat from the right Sarkozyst, by becoming director of cabinet of the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire. From there is born a very close proximity between the two men, the ex-minister calling him as “exceptional collaborator” and “faithful friend” with the World. After the subprimes, he faces another crisis of magnitude, that of the COVIR, before joining in November 2020 the very prestigious direction of the Treasury.
Director of Cabinet of Gabriel Attal
The route could stop there that he would surely already be among the models of any young enarch. But in January 2024, Emmanuel Moulin returned to the foreground in the macronist structure. With an even more strategic position, that of Director of Cabinet of the Prime Minister of the time, a certain Gabriel Attal. He must lead a “pair” with Fanny Anor, a close friend of the youngest chief of government of the Fifth Republic. But it is especially there to guarantee the good fluidity of the relationships between Matignon and the Elysée, itself much closer to Kohler than Attal. A task far from being obvious, when we now know the deep animosity between the president and the one that was nevertheless presented then as his compliant copy.
When Emmanuel Moulin makes his boxes at the same time as Gabriel Attal after dissolution, he still lacks a step to climb among the responsibilities of the shadow: the general secretariat of the Elysée. It is therefore done with the departure of Alexis Kohler, who will necessarily be a turning point in the ten years in power of Emmanuel Macron. The secretary general of the Elysée had almost molded and redrawn this post in his own way, acting as a filter around and with the President of the Republic, and replacing it identically seems almost impossible. But if it is described as more jovial and pleasant than his predecessor, Emmanuel Moulin is nonetheless rocked by the same ideas, between budgetary orthodoxy and assumed choice to be of those preferring the influence of behind the scenes rather than the glory of the political scene. Understand: if men change, the course should remain the same.