After a busy year, it’s time to take a breather. Elisabeth Borne and her ministers will be able to afford a few days of respite at the end of the parliamentary session this Sunday evening. Two short weeks of vacation to go green and try to pick up a little before the start of the school year, scheduled for August 24. But do ministers really take advantage of their summer holidays? We asked some advice from former members of government.
1. Decompress with the family…
The first thing to do, of course, is to clear your head. “You don’t really have time to breathe, but these few days still allow you to recharge your batteries. This is the time when you can get a change of air, sunbathe, take a few walks, and enjoy your family, ”says Patrick Kanner, former Minister of Cities, Youth and Sports under François Hollande. “The ministerial function is not really compatible with that of parent. So it allows you to take care of your children, to find the rhythm of a normal family for a few days, far from the intense days of the ministries, confirms Corinne Lepage, Minister of the Environment from 1995 to 1997. It is this change rhythm that we enjoy the most. Because the mental load is always present. Even on vacation, the shit does not stop.
Patrick Kanner, now boss of PS senators, gives a little tip to Borne government ministers: “I had negotiated not to have security officers on the beach towel by my side, my wife would not have supported it … But I always had my phone on me, even in a jersey. In reality, the only time when you are really calm because you cannot be reached, is in the water. Sea bathing is the quietest place there is…”
2… while staying connected
Because a minister never completely picks up. In a circular sent to her troops, Elisabeth Borne also recalled some instructions to follow: communicate dates and places of vacation to be reachable at any time “if necessary” and transmit the names, qualities and contact details of the people responsible for tenure in the ministry. “When you are a minister, you never stop being one, continues Corinne Lepage. At the time, I had the management of all industrial or ecological risks, so my phone with me everywhere. It doesn’t prevent you from living, but you have this permanent tension”.
Disconnection is therefore not really on the agenda. Patrick Kanner remembers that he made a point every morning and every evening with his teams, regularly checked his emails and news sites. “We remain completely addicted, but getting out of the news would be a mistake. The telephone is a direct link with power, but also with the media, which continue to solicit you on this or that case. Even in shorts, you are still a minister,” he smiles.
Roger Karoutchi, Secretary of State in charge of Relations with Parliament from 2007 to 2009, confirms this. “In reality, you are not really on vacation, you have to be reachable at the minute! Especially for sovereign ministries. Every week there is an event, a tragedy, a fire, a crime. But that’s not mine either! I remember that Sarkozy told us: “being a minister is such a great happiness that there is no fatigue”, laughs the senator Les Républicains.
3. Be ready to react quickly (and take off the polo shirt)
Summer is never easy. And for the ministers, the important thing is to be on the alert. “In the summer of 2008, I was in Morocco. But I receive a phone call, they say to me “here, we have to go back”. The next day, we had an interdepartmental meeting on concerns related to Lehman Brothers and the financial crisis. I had no choice. But there is no disappointment at the time because when you are a minister, there is a form of adrenaline, you are aware of the responsibilities that weigh on your shoulders”, assures the former Secretary of State in charge of trade and business Hervé Novelli (2007-2010).
Even if it is short, the summer period can also be perilous. All remember the fate of Jean-Francois Mattei in the summer of 2003. The surreal interview with the Minister of Health, responding in a polo shirt from his house in the Var when the heat wave was already killing many people, had cost him his job. “It had marked public opinion and shattered his career. You have to be careful. And whatever happens, don’t give up the costume in the media,” whispers Roger Karoutchi. The senator, who never takes a vacation, adds: “The period is so tense. I don’t think I am a prophet of doom by telling ministers that they must do everything to take the maximum amount of energy. Because at the start of the school year, they will have a very long and difficult parliamentary session…”