“Being a former minister is like sitting in the back of a car and realizing that it won’t start”confided François Goulard, former minister of Jacques Chirac, in 2012. A cry from the heart that earned him the political humor prize at the time. Being a resigning minister is like sitting in the back of a car and seeing that it still starts, could argue today the ministers of the government of Gabriel Attal, whose resignation was accepted on July 16. Condemned to waiting for a month and a half, most of them continue, under the cover of dealing with current affairs, to travel to the other side of the world, to give press conferences, to speak in the media.
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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.
The resigning Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, thus changed his mind on August 12, declaring to the Figaro that he is ” has [l]a disposition [du président de la République] »while he announced to Agence France-Presse on June 21 that he would no longer be a minister in the event of a ballot box sanction, “even for a few weeks”. “I have become a man much more committed to the service of the State”he says to justify this turnaround.
The tenant of Beauvau has since attracted followers in the government. “If we can be useful to France, I’m not going to say no.”responds Rachida Dati, the resigning Minister of Culture, when asked if she wishes to continue. “If I have the opportunity to continue the projects that I have started, (…) why not “reacts Frédéric Valletoux, Minister Delegate for Health who has resigned, recalling that he, like a few others, “was appointed in February, campaigned in June and resigned in July”.
“Need for stability”
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, in sports, says “totally committed” and not “does not feel like a resigned person”. Nicole Belloubet, the resigning Minister of National Education, also wishes to keep her portfolio, citing the “need for stability” and of « temps long » at the head of this ministry which has seen four ministers come and go in two years.
Aurore Bergé, in charge of equality between women and men, re-elected as a member of parliament for Yvelines, but who saw the quaestorship of the National Assembly slip away from her in July, would not refuse a new mission within the government. Just like Thomas Cazenave in public accounts, Roland Lescure in industry and energy, Sébastien Lecornu in the armed forces or Stéphane Séjourné in foreign affairs, yet almost all of them elected or re-elected as members of parliament in July. Some ministers have even written to the Elysée to make known their desire to participate in the future government.
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