Calendar coincidences sometimes fix things. Initially scheduled for Sunday, September 15 in Tourcoing (North), the postponement of the political return of Gérald Darmanin (Renaissance) to Sunday, September 29 allowed the Northern deputy to add one more name to his guest list: that of Gabriel Attal.
Under the windows of the botanical garden, the former prime minister will speak before several hundred guests, including his predecessors Edouard Philippe and Elisabeth Borne, the minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, and the president of the Hauts region. -de-France, Xavier Bertrand (various rights).
The arrival of the former tenant of rue de Varenne to the meeting of his former Minister of the Interior was not yet evident at the beginning of September. Mr. Attal had also warned that he would not be able to attend the event due to“an international commitment.” That is, an invitation to YES Forum, in kyiv, a convention that brings together Western leaders in support of Ukraine. The pretext was timely because the relationship between the two men had cooled after Darmanin opposed, in July, the election of his rival as president of the Ensemble pour la République (EPR) group in the National Assembly.
But in two weeks the water has flowed under the bridges and “elemental republican elegance”invoked by Darmanin to justify the postponement of his return to school, so as not to interfere with Michel Barnier in the election of his ministers, has acquired its full meaning.
His position now clear – outside the government while waiting to be re-elected, why not at the Quai d’Orsay – Gérald Darmanin, former mayor of Tourcoing (2014-2017), now aligns himself with that of his group president at the Palace Bourbon, who, since the appointment of Michel Barnier on September 5, had been offensive towards the new Prime Minister by reminding him that he would not concede “blank check”. The parliamentary days of the EPR, on September 10 in Rosny-sur-Seine (Yvelines), formalized the rapprochement of the two men.
While those close to Gabriel Attal celebrated the fact that Gérald Darmanin “Unity played”The Northern deputy improvised an unofficial press point to talk about the fluidity of his relationship with the president of his group. The next day, at the end of a Renaissance executive office, they celebrated this new agreement in the company of the party’s general secretary, Stéphane Séjourné, during a dinner in a brasserie near the Renaissance headquarters, rue du Rocher, in Paris. The three figures in the presidential camp competed that night with anecdotes about Michel Barnier, the catalyst of their association, with whose maneuvers they had fun to maintain ties with Macron’s camp since 2017.
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