Emmanuel Macron forgot the holidays. While the situation in Ukraine and the role played by Donald Trump gave him the opportunity to be on the front line, he wanted the government to make a statement from next week, possibly followed by a Voting, in the National Assembly on foreign policy, according to article 50-1 of the Constitution. He had to refresh his ardor: it was reminded to him that the deputies did not sit during the last week of February. The debate will only take place at the beginning of March.
Impatient, the president is also a talkative. During the Council of Ministers this Wednesday, February 19, he intervened at length than usual to evoke the United States, these “unpredictable allies”, and Russia, whose rise in power can worry. “Today’s Putin is not the one who treated with Jacques Chirac,” he noticed. Thursday, February 20, Emmanuel Macron talks with party leaders the international news, including the question of security in Europe, in the format known as Saint-Denis meetings. He has just organized two mini-smallers with international leaders and will have been maintained with all twenty-seven of the European Union, he specifies in an interview with the regional daily press. “Do not think that the unthinkable cannot happen, including the worst,” adds the head of state about the Russian threat. He will be in Washington at the start of next week and will meet Donald Trump.
Finally alone. Alone to occupy the diplomatic ground (with his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot). Alone, without having to manage a bulky Prime Minister, now that the dissolution prevents him from doing everything he likes. From this point of view, François Bayrou is perfect. He started hard, almost imposing his appointment on the president, but he continues gentle. And especially on foreign policy. He does not want any conflict with the Elysée, no frying on the line, the instructions were recalled to the Directors of Cabinet of the Ministers. And “on the reserved area, he is very respectful”, specifies one of his advisers. Almost two months after his appointment, he made no trip outside our borders, even on the European continent.
Gabriel Attal and the trip to Ukraine
François Bayrou is not Michel Barnier. When he was in Matignon, the ex-negotiator of Brexit did not want to forget his past. During the parliamentary days of LR in Annecy, in September 2024, the Savoyard seemed to reassure deputies and senators of his party on his room for maneuver and tells them that he does not believe in the reserved domains of the Head of State, “but in shared areas “with the Prime Minister. The Elysée jums. Michel Barnier is right, the shared domain does not exist in the Constitution, as he recalled in private Edouard Balladur, Prime Minister of Cohabitation with François Mitterrand between 1993 and 1995.
Michel Barnier is wrong, he is not in a position to deliver an showdown with Emmanuel Macron. “It must be told that it was not voluntary,” he said to a relative of the president. A minister recounts the misunderstanding which then exists at the top of the state: “Michel Barnier wanted to give a great speech to the European Parliament even before the training of his government, the president had to suggest perhaps starting First by worrying about the National Assembly! “
And what about his predecessor? Shortly after his appointment to Matignon, Gabriel Attal had an idea, an desire: to make an official trip to Ukraine. No question, “replied Emmanuel Macron. The president is due to his kept hunting as to the apple of his eyes. Suddenly, the head of government then had to wait until he was no longer in Matignon to go to kyiv – it was his first trip after leaving the rue de Varenne, and he returned there at this weekend. Not at the request of the Head of State …