Time suspended at Matignon. In the third part of the documentary dedicated to Edouard Philippe (“Edouard, my right-hand friend”, France 5, 2021), an image made people smile: in the midst of the “yellow vests” crisis, director Laurent Cibien’s camera was lingered on the regular comings and goings of an automatic mower: a small white robot quietly criss-crossing the Matignon lawn, as if nothing had happened. The contrast between the tumult of the street and this apparent calm, at the heart of power, was striking. Thursday April 6, day of the 11e demonstration against the pension reform, the lawn mower, which can be seen from the windows of the first floor of Matignon, is stopped, abandoned in a corner of the garden. As an echo of the blocked, frozen situation. How to continue to govern?
On borrowed time at Matignon, Elisabeth Borne is weightless. Emmanuel Macron asked him to renew the dialogue with the unions and to enlarge his majority. “I hope she will succeed,” he added on March 22 (on TF1 and France 2), suddenly threatening, as a last warning before reshuffle. Her mission is impossible, and she knows it. Launched several days ago in a cycle of consultations, the Prime Minister knows the outcome in advance.
On Wednesday April 5, the trade unions received at Matignon left the negotiating table, furious that the head of government had not made the slightest gesture (neither pause, nor mediation, nor withdrawal), reproaching her for her inflexibility and a disconnected side. As for the leaders of groups and parties, whom she got to know, she no longer hopes to rally them. The Republican (LR) deputies are too divided while the elected Socialist Party (PS) are “for two-thirds of new MPs”and so « children of the Nupes [Nouvelle Union populaire écologique et sociale] »we argue at Matignon, even if there are points of convergence with certain socialists – like the mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, with whom the Prime Minister spoke recently.
Elisabeth Borne also warned Emmanuel Macron that the words “expand the majority” could « crisper », in this deliquescent moment when no one seems eager to join Macronie. The method that the Prime Minister intends to build to regain a footing is therefore very similar to that of yesterday: seeking project majorities in the Assembly, text by text. “There is no other short-term alternative”, she justifies.
You have 69.22% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.