2024-01-12 11:42:10
Surprise and disruption are intended to be the key words of the major change undertaken by Emmanuel Macron to try to avoid a fiasco in the European elections in June. Two days after choosing Gabriel Attal to lead the government, overriding the reservations of most of the barons of the majority, the head of state brought Rachida Dati into the government on Thursday, January 11, knowing that all eyes would be on her.
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Media and controversial, the Les Républicains (LR) mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris, immediately excluded from her party, is a loyal supporter of Nicolas Sarkozy who has, for the rest, freed herself from any other supervision. His indictment in July 2021 for “corruption” and “passive influence peddling”, in the investigation into her consulting services to the former CEO of Renault-Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, did not discourage the head of state from choosing her to replace his former advisor, Rima Abdul Malak, who did not was more in court, at the Ministry of Culture.
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The move is risky, especially at this position. It is designed to destabilize LR, or even foreshadow a possible Renaissance alliance with the Parisian right in the municipal elections of 2026, but it also has the appearance of a confession. The original Macronism, conceived as an overcoming of the left and the right, has lived. To survive, the handle is now blocked on the right: of the fourteen ministers appointed or reappointed on Thursday, eight come from its ranks. Bruno Le Maire on the economy, Gérald Darmanin on the interior, Sébastien Lecornu on the defense consolidate their positions. Among the five new ones, three are loyal to the Head of State, like Stéphane Séjourné, who is joining the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs; two, Rachida Dati and Catherine Vautrin, are close to Nicolas Sarkozy.
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There was no need to wait for the appointment of these two elected officials to measure the rediscovered influence of the former President of the Republic: a strong tribute to working France, a promise to promote merit, an ode to energy and action, emphasis on security forces. The first words and first actions of Gabriel Attal are modeled on those used by Nicolas Sarkozy during his 2007 campaign, the one where he managed to shrink Jean-Marie Le Pen’s electorate by attracting a large part of the middle classes .
Copy paste
This copy-and-paste bias to try to halt the momentum of the National Rally is perhaps the only cartridge available to the Head of State today to relaunch his mandate, but it comes with a curious impression: instead of moving forward, the feeling of going backwards prevails, which neither the effect of surprise nor the disruption manages to hide. Inside the majority, the left wing does not understand why it is being sacrificed and the center does not appreciate being neglected.
The unease promises to be all the more difficult to overcome as these choices struggle to convince: a very tight government around former LR and early Macronists called to lead the electoral fight appears hardly compatible with the heaviness of the issues at hand. deal with: the Ministry of Housing has disappeared; national education, youth and sports are grouped together, while in full preparation for the Olympic Games each entity requires constant attention. Health, another priority for the French, must coexist with work and solidarity. Emmanuel Macron’s next explanations will not be too much to dispel doubts and misunderstandings.
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