The government has not yet been appointed and already, the “Demanding coexistence” theorized at the Elysée Palace the day after Michel Barnier’s appointment as Prime Minister, takes on an air of harsh coexistence.
The composition of the government has thus significantly altered relations between the Head of State and the Prime Minister in recent days. On Tuesday 18 September, Michel Barnier presented a first draft to Emmanuel Macron. A first list of possible ministers was rejected by the Head of State, who judged it “ monochrome » in front of their loved ones. And the elected officials of the presidential camp were aware of it, while Matignon did not leak anything. This list would be characterized by an unreasonable presence of elected officials, the Republicans (LR) denounce.
Suffering from electoral defeats and tired of the way they have treated the opposition since 2012, the LR have indeed found a voracious appetite, despite their 47 deputies, compared to 97 for the president’s camp. To the point of requiring between a quarter and a third of the ministries, including the so-called sovereign ones (interior, justice, economy). “We are the first group when you add the senators (132) and the deputies”repeats again and again the head of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, often quoted by Beauvau.
About fifteen deputies from Renaissance, MoDem and Horizons were received on Wednesday during a lunch by the Head of State. Particularly upset and worried at the prospect of a “LR Government” in which the presidential camp would have to settle for subordinate positions, they warned that if this were the case they would not be able to support Barnier’s government. Emmanuel Macron has “strongly approved”according to several guests, encouraging their hosts to “express the fact that this [leur] not suitable ».
“Getting as close as possible to national unity”
At the beginning of the afternoon of this Wednesday, the Head of State received the Prime Minister again, for the second time in two days. Shortly after this interview, we learned that Michel Barnier’s meeting with the leaders of LR, Gérard Larcher, Bruno Retailleau and Laurent Wauquiez, scheduled for 6 p.m., had been cancelled. Was it to avoid increasing the impression that the Prime Minister was favouring his political family, when he cancelled on Wednesday morning, officially for agenda reasons, the meeting with a delegation from the presidential camp? Or because the Head of State asked him once again to review his copy? Michel Barnier’s entourage was careful not to give the slightest reason and denied the “inaccurate information” that circulate, “particularly in names” and in “the balance of sensitivities”. “This does not in any way represent the government project desired by the Prime Minister”the head of government’s team denies.
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