The Foreign Minister of the outgoing French government, Stéphane Séjourné, was on the plane to Athens on Monday morning, September 16, when the Elysée announced that he would be the next French commissioner in the team surrounding Ursula von der Leyen for her second term, starting on September 1.Ahem December at the latest.
Earlier that day, he was in Yerevan, Armenia, when Thierry Breton published his letter of resignation on day X. Shortly before, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market had sent it to Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the community executive, as well as to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his secretary general, Alexis Kohler.
On Sunday evening, 15 September, Emmanuel Macron decided to reverse his decision to renew Thierry Breton’s post for the next five years. The Head of State had certainly warned all the protagonists of this affair, but the acting commissioner, who is not a man to submit, did not give him time to perfect his communication strategy.
At 8am on Monday, he posted a first message on X, accompanied by a photo of a blackboard: “My official portrait for the next term of the Commission” – before issuing his resignation letter to Ursula von der Leyen. “A few days ago, in the final stages of negotiations on the composition of the future college, you asked France to withdraw my name, for personal reasons that you have not discussed with me in any way.”He wrote there, to justify his decision, “with immediate effect”.
An essential piece of French influence
However, until very recently the matter seemed to be resolved. On 27 June, during the European Council where the Twenty-Seven proposed offering a second term to Ursula von der Leyen, Emmanuel Macron said that he wanted to keep Thierry Breton in Brussels. “It is my wish and I believe he has the experience and the qualities to do so”he stated.
After the European elections of June 9, in which Macron’s troops fell by 40% in the European Parliament and a dissolution of the National Assembly that promised to be more than dangerous for the majority, this appointment was, for the Elysée, an essential piece of French influence in Brussels. He had also made it one of the conditions of France’s support for the re-election of Ursula von der Leyen, as he had indicated to Angela Merkel’s former minister when she visited him in Paris on June 12.
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