“Can I say a few words now?” Following in Matignon’s footsteps, Michel Barnier is growing impatient. This Thursday, September 5, the oldest Prime Minister in the Vmy The Republic meets the youngest members. The first, aged 73, appointed a few hours earlier, takes up his duties, the second, aged 35, leaves. “After Club Mickey, it’s the boomer era!”mocks a confidant of Emmanuel Macron.
But before he leaves, Gabriel Attal has a few words to say. Too much, in the opinion of the former European Commissioner? After twenty minutes of speech, the large crowd gathered in the courtyard of the Hôtel de Matignon fervently applauded the thirty-something whom the Anglo-Saxon press has long dubbed “the Macron baby”.
There is a bitterness in the air. Gabriel Attal, who has been in charge of managing the current affairs since July 16, has never come to terms with the dissolution of the National Assembly, announced on June 9 by the Head of State. The presidential decision brought his meteoric rise to a screeching halt, putting an end to his tenure which began on January 9. “Eight months is too short. This is too short. There is frustration.”admits the elected representative of Vanves (Hauts-de-Seine), who is preparing to join the National Assembly and assume the full-time presidency of the Macronist group of deputies.
During this time, the now ex-Prime Minister lists the projects undertaken (discrimination, fight against juvenile delinquency, ecology, etc.), although he admits that nothing has come to fruition. “Under other circumstances, we would have successfully completed this work. “, he believes. Then, assuming the impudence of youth, he snapped at his successor: “The measures are on your desk,” imagining that Michel Barnier could finish his work.
“French politics is sick”
Gabriel Attal turns the page. And makes an appointment. “The future belongs to us”He says, as if filled with ambition, in a speech “very personal” which, according to those close to him, he wrote himself. The former prime minister even borrows the accent of a campaign candidate to proclaim his love for the country and his fellow citizens. “I want to tell the French how much I love them!”He said praising this people “viscerally untamable”.
The fifty days following the results of the legislative elections offered a bleak political spectacle, dominated by partisan tricks and political calculations. ” Yeah, He said, French politics is sick. » But, “I believe that healing is possible”he adds, as if it were part of the solution, before launching into an ode to freedom. A freedom regained after having been under the authority of Emmanuel Macron. “What greater value than freedom!”He concludes, finally freed from the head of state and ready to flee.
