“Being a former minister is like sitting in the back of a car and realizing it won’t start”François Goulard, Jacques Chirac’s former minister, confided in 2012. A cry from the heart that earned him the prize for political humour of the time. Being a minister who resigns is like sitting in the back of a car and seeing that it still starts, the ministers of Gabriel Attal’s government, whose resignation was accepted on 16 July, could argue today. Condemned to wait a month and a half, most of them continue, under the pretext of dealing with current affairs, travelling to the other side of the world, giving press conferences, speaking in the media.
To the point of forgetting the result of the legislative elections. Some who, anticipating the defeat of the presidential camp, swore at the beginning of the summer that they wanted to leave the government after the elections of June 30 and July 7, now dream of staying there.
Thus, the resigning Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, made a radical change on August 12, declaring Figaro that he is ” has [l]available [du président de la République] »while announcing to Agence France-Presse on June 21 that he would cease to be a minister in the event of sanctions at the polls, “even if it is for a few weeks”. “I have become a man much more attached to the service of the State”he says to justify this change of opinion.
Since then, the government has emulated the tenant of Beauvau. “If we can be useful to France, I will not say no yet”“This is the answer,” says Rachida Dati, the outgoing Minister of Culture, when asked if she wishes to continue. “If I have the opportunity to continue the projects I have opened, (…) why not “Frédéric Valletoux, the resigned Minister of Health, reacts by recalling that he, like some others, “He was appointed in February, campaigned in June and resigned in July”.
“Need for stability”
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, in sport, she tells herself “fully committed” and don’t do it “He doesn’t feel like a resigned person”Nicole Belloubet, the outgoing Minister of National Education, also wants to keep her portfolio, citing the “Need for stability” and of “a long time” at the head of this ministry that has seen four ministers pass through in two years.
Aurore Bergé, the person responsible for gender equality, re-elected as a deputy for Yvelines but who was not elected as a National Assembly member in July, will not refuse a new role within the government. Like Thomas Cazenave in public accounts, Roland Lescure in industry and energy, Sébastien Lecornu in the army or Stéphane Séjourné in foreign affairs, but almost all of them elected or re-elected as deputies in July. Some ministers have even written to the Elysée to make known their wish to participate in the future government.
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