Under Emmanuel Macron, the ministers change, the “gang of four” stays in command of the State | EUROtoday

In the courtyard of Bercy, this Thursday, September 12, Bruno Le Maire thanks these with out whom “nothing would have been possible” throughout his seven years on the head of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. First his junior ministers, who obtained well mannered applause from the five hundred or so civil servants current. Then the members of his successive cupboards, “who sacrificed themselves, who exhausted themselves at work, with an exceptional sense of commitment to the service of the State”helps the resigning minister.

Emmanuel Moulin, who was his chief of workers (2017-2020), notably throughout the Covid-19 disaster, is acclaimed. Bertrand Dumont, who succeeded him on this place in 2020, is applauded, regardless of his absence. Finally, Jérôme Fournel, who changed Mr. Dumont at first of 2024, is the third hero of “this beautiful and great adventure”as Mr. Le Maire described it on the time of the farewells. In the entrance row, Messrs. Moulin and Fournel savor the ovation of the “Bercy house”.

Since 2017, these three senior civil servants have shared the outposts of the senior administration: the Treasury Directorate, the Directorate of the Office of the Minister of the Economy and the Directorate of the Prime Minister's Office. When one leaves a place, one of many different two takes his place. A ballet orchestrated, from the Elysée, by the highly effective Secretary General of the Presidency, Alexis Kohler. Because as within the novel by Alexandre Dumas, the three musketeers are 4.

“Friends of thirty years”

The Essec enterprise college and the Ecole nationale d’administration (ENA) for Kohler and Moulin, HEC and the ENA for Fournel, Normale-Sup and the ENA for Dumont… These “ associates of thirty years ” embody the administrative elite of the country, even if none of them graduated from the ENA in the “boot”, which gives access to the great corps. They met at Bercy in the 90s, and never lost sight of each other.

Thirty years later, when they are almost fifty, Alexis Kohler, Emmanuel Moulin and Bertrand Dumont are still friends, see each other outside of work. With Jérôme Fournel, the connection is made mainly through work. “It is a reconstitution of a dissolved league”exclaimed Jean-Pierre Jouyet, former secretary general of the Elysée, when Emmanuel Moulin took over the management of Gabriel Attal's office at Matignon in January, in permanent contact with Kohler at the Elysée.

A former Bercy tenant describes “a gang, firmly seated in energy for seven years”with the arrival of Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée. Emmanuel Moulin, the oldest of the three (55 years old), invokes a “succession of coincidences” to justify the constitution of this “gang of 4” at the top of the Macronian State. Bruno Le Maire, who had crossed paths with Fournel in the office of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin between 2005 and 2007, then Moulin and Dumont in the Sarkozyst offices, introduced them into the Macronist sphere in 2017. “There aren't many individuals who’ve spent numerous time within the administration and who settle for very demanding positions as chief of workers.”boasts Emmanuel Moulin, bored with the endogamy trial.

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