Pap Ndiaye at the Council of Europe: these Macron appointments full of ulterior motives

2023-07-27 13:02:27

To say that Emmanuel Macron is often criticized for procrastinating endlessly when it comes to making an appointment… We remember a Christophe Castaner waiting two weeks before being propelled to Place Beauvau in 2018 – he will feel that he has been soaped up in this way by procrastinating at this point. The examples are legion, especially for entries into the government.

But for outings, the president is more of the Lucky Luke type. Pap Ndiaye has barely finished his handover speech to Gabriel Attal on July 20 when he finds himself, six days later, French ambassador to the Council of Europe – an instance that happens to the macronists of to curse when she allows herself to make disparaging remarks about Paris. He replaces a certain Marie Fontanel, who also had great qualities: member of the same class of ENA as the young Emmanuel Macron, former adviser to President Macron’s cabinet…

Summer is conducive to this kind of operation, even if the right is obviously crying scandal: Eric Ciotti considers that if Pap Ndiaye has been dismissed from his ministerial functions for “incompetence”, he cannot represent France outside its borders. . “Almost fictitious highly paid job”, says in sobriety Reconquest, the party of Eric Zemmour.

Pap Ndiaye had made terrible remarks on Macronie just before leaving the government: “Who among them has the slightest idea of ​​what racism is?”, He had dropped, quoted in The world, after sparking a controversy over Vincent Bolloré and the media. Here he is now bound by a duty of reserve, in case the idea crosses his mind to recount his ministerial experience.

From Ségolène Royal to Amélie de Montchalin

To be silent under the pretext of a rattle? It is a classic of the genre, which nevertheless suffers from some spectacular exceptions. In 2017, Ségolène Royal oscillates between flattering remarks and underlying criticism of the new president. Her voice still carries, then, since she blows cold and hot, why not send her to the poles, of which she becomes the ambassador? The finalist for the 2007 presidential election does not, however, intend to keep her tongue in her pocket. As she raises the sound in the attacks against the executive, she even receives a very official letter from the Quai d’Orsay reminding her of her famous duty of reserve and will be dismissed from her post shortly after.

At least Amélie de Montchalin knows how to keep quiet. The former minister, beaten in the June 2022 legislative elections, five months later became ambassador, permanent representative of France to the OECD, where she succeeded… Muriel Pénicaud, who had obtained this post two months after being ousted from the government. Beware, however, of demagogy, although the times spread it with generosity: a minister has the right to have a life after the government, which he does not leave a priori with less skills than on the day of his entry.

“There is no cronyism for services in my country. Look at the government. If I served people according to their involvement in the presidential campaign which was mine, would I have chosen the Prime Minister whom I appointed there fifteen months ago [Edouard Philippe, ex-LR] ?”: it was in August 2018, Emmanuel Macron responded at a press conference to the controversy arising from his decision to make Philippe Besson the Consul General of France in Los Angeles. The writer has no diplomatic experience but he has dedicated a book to the candidate Macron (A character from a novel) and participated in the evening at the Rotonde, after the first round of the 2017 presidential election. Caught up by criticism of favoritism and the fact of the prince, Emmanuel Macron will end up giving up. Presidents always come to power with lots of promises on “the exemplary Republic” in their program. Then begins the confrontation with reality…