Lhe book begins with the end: her departure from Matignon, on January 9, when she had just successfully passed the immigration law. “The worst is behind me”believes Elisabeth Borne, at the end of 2023, convinced that she will continue her « mission » until the European elections in June. On December 31, during his televised greetings, Emmanuel Macron “thanks” his prime minister. An unusual attention which worries the person concerned, rather than reassuring her.
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At the start of the year, she saw the president several times, who never made it clear to her that he intended to replace her. On January 3, they even discussed the idea of a new, tighter government, which she would continue to lead. On January 7, Mr. Macron announced to him with a smile that he was finally going to appoint someone in his place. “I am in shock, she writes. I feel a strong feeling of unfinished business. »
In Twenty months in Matignon (Flammarion, 236 pages, 21.50 euros), in bookstores Wednesday October 23, Elisabeth Borne recounts her experience of power, which sometimes resembles a real way of the cross, from the abrasive pension reform to the bill on immigration, voted on with forceps and applauded by Marine Le Pen, including the death of young Nahel, killed in June 2023 by a police officer, who set fire to neighborhoods. Appointed a few weeks before the legislative elections of June 2022 which would deprive her of 40 votes, she is forced to find majorities on each text and finds it difficult to be called « Mme 49.3 » – “even though I used it less than Michel Rocard” –, just as she refutes her reputation as “stiffness” and of “hardness”.
A “plan B”
In essence, Elisabeth Borne draws the portrait of a duplicitous and indecisive president, never really clear on his intentions, Darwinian. “Like the whole government, I don’t know if I’m going to spend the summer in my position”she asks herself in the spring of 2023. “Three months of real false reprieve, humanly painful, but also counterproductive, when it was necessary to begin the preparation of budgets for the following year and launch the reforms to come”she gets annoyed.
In 2022, when he has just been re-elected for a second term, the President of the Republic assures him that he intends “gain more height and perspective”which he will not do. Borne also knows that she is a « plan B »the Head of State having first wished to appoint Catherine Vautrin, from the right: “I could have hoped for better to establish my legitimacy! » Mr. Macron encourages him to ask for a vote of confidence in the National Assembly – “your predecessors did it, it would be elegant for you to do it” –, while the absence of a majority makes this vote highly risky: “It would perhaps be elegant, but above all suicidal. » The President of the Republic also ordered her to find an impossible coalition: “I hope she succeeds”he warns, even though he knows very well that she cannot. Several times, she considered resigning.
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