Back to home affairs for Emmanuel Macron. After a long parenthesis outside France (European Council at the end of last week, then NATO summits in Bavaria and the G7 in Madrid, United Nations conference on the oceans, this Thursday in Lisbon), the Head of State returns this Friday, July 1st with a pile of files on his desk.
Starting with a meeting with Elisabeth Borne scheduled for the day to discuss two oh so burning subjects: the report of the exchanges she has had in recent days with the various representatives of the country’s political forces to draw up possible points of agreement on the major reforms of the five-year term, then the reshuffle which could take place at the very beginning of next week.
This weekend, “it will therefore be very studious”, sums up an adviser. “The phones will heat up, Macron will personally put his mark on the casting”, continues another. Objective: to replace the four departing ministers (after the defeats in the legislative elections of Amélie de Montchalin, Brigitte Bourguignon and Justine Benin), then Yaël Braun-Pivet who left the Overseas Territories for the presidency of the National Assembly. But also complete the government team with the potential appointments of a dozen deputy ministers and secretaries of state.
The government will indeed have its work cut out for it in the coming days, with the presentation of a bill to extend certain provisions of the state of health emergency which ends on July 31, then also the long-awaited draft purchasing power law. Two legislative behemoths that Borne will have to defend with his first big political test in the Assembly in the middle: his general policy statement this Wednesday, of which Matignon still does not know at this stage whether it will submit it to the vote of confidence… or not.