EEmmanuel Macron is done with “amateurs” of which he was nevertheless so proud in 2017. The government of his Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, announced Thursday December 11, from the winter garden of the Elysée, returns to the policy of yesteryear, that of a “ ancient world » that the Head of State imagined throwing away when he arrived at the Elysée.
To train your team “tightened”like a “XV of France”according to the Elysée, and turned towards “action, action, action”according to the words of the tenant of Matignon during his interview on the 8 p.m. television news on TF1, Emmanuel Macron drew from the ranks of Sarkozie, recruiting the former Minister of Justice Rachida Dati, and ventured into Chiraquia to pick up Catherine Vautrin, minister from 2004 to 2007.
Two women, from the right, therefore, who will sit on the council of ministers alongside Bruno Le Maire, powerful tenant of Bercy, and Gérald Darmanin, the minister of the interior, both former members of the Republicans (LR) and ex -ministers of Nicolas Sarkozy. The shadow of the former right-wing president, who tirelessly pleads for an alliance between LR and the presidential camp, hangs over this casting made up of pure politicians.
“It’s astonishing”
For historic Macronists of center-left sensibility, this government team illustrates the uninhibited right-wing of the head of state. A process begun during the first five-year term which reached its peak with the adoption, on December 19, 2023, of the “immigration” law written under the dictation of LR senators and voted for by the far right. The Attal government comes “put the last nail in the coffin of macronism”laments a Renaissance MP, an early ally of Emmanuel Macron. “It’s 100% right. It’s even astonishing.” sighs a former minister, labeled to the left of the majority.
François Bayrou, boss of MoDem, watchman of political balances during previous reshuffles, fumes. His party, represented by the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, is losing influence. The time when the centrist could block the appointment of Catherine Vautrin to Matignon, because she was too right-wing, as he did in May 2022, seems to be over. Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe says he is satisfied with having at least obtained the retention of Christophe Béchu, secretary general of his party, Horizons, at the head of the Ministry of Ecology. “ At the time of a reshuffle, there are always moments of tension, friction, but no rupture”defends the entourage of Emmanuel Macron who imposes “duty of freedom” of the Head of State vis-à-vis his political allies to aim only “ the interest of the country »
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