Olivier Véran is anxious. Addicted to Coke zero as one would be to cigarettes, the former health minister fretted during the presidential campaign. On April 24 on the Champ-de-Mars, when others were intoxicated by the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, he nervously questioned those close to the head of state about his personal future. The 42-year-old neurologist had a meteoric rise during the first five-year term, propelled from deputy for Isère to minister of health by a combination of circumstances which would bring down his predecessor, Agnès Buzyn.
But what place could he have for the second? The Grenoblois doubted and heard the advisers of the Elysée describe him in “Inspector Columbo” politics. After two years spent on television sets talking about Covid-19, barrier gestures, confinement, masks to put on or take off, the forties seemed unable to play any role other than that of the doctor bringing bad news, such as American actor Peter Falk had been condemned to be nothing more than a sleuth on television in a crumpled raincoat.
That time is over. Olivier Véran, ephemeral minister for relations with Parliament, is now government spokesperson. When he receives The world in the gardens of his ministry, he is “ happy “. And assures him: “I don’t fear anything, in essence. » The seventh wave of Covid-19 which overwhelms France? He leaves it to François Braun, the new Minister of Health, who “will do a great job”. He moved on to something else, to pure politics. “He wanted a very political position, he found it. On the front of the stage, he will be able to establish a new relationship with the public., thinks the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, figures like him on the left wing of the “macronie”. ” I take the stripes of versatility in the eyes of those who see me as a minister doctor”, recognizes Olivier Véran.
craftsman of compromise
Versatility, indeed. A few days after taking office, he had to castigate the motion of censure tabled by the deputies of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) against the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne. A “postural motion”he evacuated before tackling the controversy linked to the homophobic exit of the Minister for Communities, Caroline Cayeux, whom he minimized, without apologizing, speaking of “anachronistic remarks”. The investigation into the “Uber Files” which forced Emmanuel Macron to clarify his role played in the development in France of the American VTC company? “The desire to create controversy where there is none”he still dodged.
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