Emmanuel Macron repeated it to his ministers: “we have to take a lot of distance”. Nevertheless, the stakes are high, a few days, even a few hours from a possible reshuffle. So to play down the expectation of a possible replacement of his ministers, the President of the Republic decided to invite them to a dinner with their spouses this Tuesday, July 18.
The Head of State also invited members of the government to be “very proud” of the sometimes “unthinkable” reforms carried out this year, starting with the ultra-contested one on pensions. And he promised “many decisive reforms at the start of the school year”, while warning that “things will not be simpler”, because “French political life will not be simplified”.
Dinner with ministers and secretaries of state, accompanied if they wish by their spouses, is a tradition before the summer break. But it falls, this year, in full reorganization. “Baroque,” quipped a ministerial adviser. “It’s sadistic,” even offended another. The Head of State, after long procrastination, resolved on Monday to “keep” the Prime Minister in office, without enthusiasm and after having considered replacing her with his Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, according to numerous macronist sources.
Before the Elysian raout, the executive duo met for almost an hour of face-to-face to refine the list of members called to leave the government and their replacements. And, in an astonishing crossover, Élisabeth Borne descended the stairs coming from the presidential floor at the very moment when Gérald Darmanin was climbing them… The Prime Minister then returned to dinner accompanied, extremely rare, by her spouse.
According to several sources in the presidential camp, we are moving towards a reshuffle limited to six or seven portfolios, a maximum of ten. An announcement could “potentially” take place as early as Wednesday afternoon, according to Emmanuel Macron’s entourage. The Council of Ministers, initially scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed, a priori, to Thursday. To close the sequence, the president must speak by the end of the week, in a form that remains to be defined, to redefine his course.
Tuesday evening, it was the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye who presented himself first on the steps of the palace, even though his fate is among the most scrutinized. For months, Macronie has been buzzing with speculation about this personality from civil society accused of not “embodying” his function enough, and the name of the current Budget Minister Gabriel Attal has begun to circulate in recent hours to replace him, even if several sources urged caution.
“The president has a lot of attachment” for Pap Ndiaye, “it was he who chose him at the start”, warns a minister. Same scenario for the Minister of Health François Braun. Will they save their posts? Among the following to arrive at the Élysée, Marlène Schiappa is, in everyone’s opinion, about to leave after being pinned for her management of the Marianne fund. Just like the Minister of Solidarity Jean-Christophe Combe, who could, according to sources from the presidential camp, be replaced by a Renaissance deputy like Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet or even the patroness of the group in the National Assembly Aurore Bergé.
“In a past life, I was in your shoes and I know that these moments are never pleasant”, launched Emmanuel Macron from the outset, to lighten the atmosphere. “You have to take a lot of distance,” he added, thanking the “families” who “carry some of the stress of the vicissitudes you have to endure.” A secretary of state was delighted with a “friendly and rather relaxed atmosphere”, far from the reshuffle, as the evening continued around midnight “on a little music”.
By opting for a minimal response at the end of the 100 days that he himself had set, on April 17, to relaunch his five-year term after the pension crisis, the Head of State acknowledged the fact that he failed to find the solution to a delicate political equation: the absence of an absolute majority in the Assembly. ” No hurry. It was urgent to wait. This sequence of 100 days was not appropriated by the French. It’s more a message to the microcosm, “sums up the opinion director general of the Ifop polling institute, Frédéric Dabi.
