“Rendez-vous”, reshuffle, European… Macron seeks a course for 2024 | EUROtoday
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JThursday, December 28, it is time to chill out. After two intense weeks of negotiations and negotiations on the thorny immigration sequence, a number of ministers left the Parisian fog to take a brief second of respite. But as his conventional end-of-year speech approaches, Emmanuel Macron, from Fort Brégançon (Var), is already trying in the direction of the longer term.
Marked by pension reform, city riots, the Hamas-Israel battle and, extra lately, the immigration invoice, the macronie is rising exhausted from this laborious second yr of the five-year time period. Summoned to present a brand new path, the president, for the second, is looking, consulting and reflecting.
Concrete building websites
Mysterious in his final speeches, as throughout the present C to you, broadcast on France 5, the Head of State maintains a vagueness round this well-known “meeting with the French”. “If I make an appointment with you in January, I will not honor it in December! » he had mischievously swept aside during the program, simply letting it slip that the school, “mother of battles”, may very well be a part of this assembly. “It creates anticipation, the desire increases when the effect recedes,” laughs a relative, quoting Pierre Corneille.
READ ALSO Emmanuel Macron’s letter to Santa ClausIt should be mentioned that this isn’t the primary time that the Élysée has tried to emerge from a disaster because of the implementation of a brand new democratic instrument. Since 2017, initiatives have flourished, between the lists of grievances after the Yellow Vest disaster, the institution of the National Council for Refoundation, the key nationwide debates, the residents’ conventions and, lately, the Saint-Denis conferences. . But all have light.
Deemed disconnected and technocratic, none has succeeded in convincing public opinion to be sustainable. Within the celebration, there are a number of, within the unknown like the remainder of the French, who don’t wish to look ahead to clarification from the president and are already excited about concrete initiatives for 2024. “We should push the legislative proposals and the texts in preparation on power, on agriculture, on hospitals and well being then on the tip of life to revive a world perspective”, says François Patriat, RDPI senator (Rally of Democrats, Progressives and Independents) from the Côte- Golden.
“A larger, stronger government”
In the meantime, another avenue remains in everyone’s minds, that of a major reshuffle. On December 24, in the midst of preparations for Christmas, the declaration of François Bayrou, president of the MoDem, Sunday newspapercame to further strain an already hard-pressed executive.
“A new page opens. We need new momentum, renewal,” he declared before adding, as if to reaffirm his loyalty to Emmanuel Macron: “But with which personalities, which government architecture? It’s up to the president to decide. » Internally, some are having fun with this outing of the current mayor of Pau. “Bayrou speaks in the wind, we must not pay attention to it”, tackles a member of the majority.
READ ALSO Immigration law: Macron regains control, at full speedBut within the government, several already seem to be planning to pack their boxes. Starting, it seems, with the falsely resigned ministers from the immigration sequence: Sylvie Retailleau, Minister of Higher Education, whose resignation was refused by the executive; Clément Beaune, Minister Delegate in charge of Transport at the origin of the rebellious dinner, and his colleague in Housing, Patrice Vergriete.
Also in the hot seat, the interim Minister of Health, Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo, splashed, upon her appointment, by a judicial investigation into a case of undeclared gifts amounting to more than 20,000 euros. “We need a larger, stronger government. Today, only ten ministers are known, that is not enough,” confides a close friend of the majority.
A springboard for the Mayor
Others believe that a renewal will spare no one, starting with Élisabeth Borne herself. “The question is whether the president wants a malleable Prime Minister or a replacement capable of embodying an ambition,” explains a party executive, who puts forward Bruno Le Maire, current Minister of the Economy. “If he wants to go to the Élysée one day, Bruno must go through the Matignon box between 2024 and 2026.”
Absent from the end-of-year dinner organized by the Prime Minister, the former candidate in the right-wing primary has been trying, for several months now, to extricate himself from his role as Minister of the Economy. With a position like this, the springboard would be assured for the tenant of Bercy.
But it remains to be seen whether Emmanuel Macron would agree to have, at his side, a Prime Minister with whom he has a relationship of ups and downs. “This is where everything will come down to, they need to discuss together,” confesses a relative.
Attal to the Europeans?
Last card in the hands of the Head of State, that of the European elections. With an officialization of the head of the list planned for January, the executive can find, in this election, a new course in a five-year term atrophied by a relative majority in the National Assembly.
But with more than 50% abstention in the last election, in 2019, this plan seems difficult to maintain. “We have to hit hard, we have to arouse interest, Gabriel Attal would be the perfect candidate,” says a tenor of the majority, who does not see in Stéphane Séjourné, president of the Renew group in the European Parliament, and probable head of the list, the makings of a rival against the National Rally.
READ ALSO Emmanuel Macron-Gabriel Attal: trustworthy inheritor or future traitor? “Gabriel has talent, he is combative and, on television, he would debate against Bardella, many want to see him go,” slips the identical supply. A candidacy of the present Minister of National Education, favourite political determine of the French (40%), in keeping with the Ipsos Barometer-Point of December, might it restore curiosity to this election and permit the bulk to meet up with an RN already far within the polls?
But the primary individual involved would then have to go away his submit, rue de Grenelle, he who, since his appointment, has launched a number of initiatives to reform the training system. “It would be a proof of courage, he gave the directives in Education and now he will prove himself at European level”, is satisfied the tenor. But would the Head of State himself, having lately congratulated him on France 5 – hailing his “talent” and his “popularity” – be able to let one in all his followers go?
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