Michel Barnier, in a seminar with the government, summons his ministers to stop the hiccups

POLICY – Morning to shake up the obvious. Michel Barnier brought together his ministers, this Monday, November 4 in Matignon, in a government seminar, to “ ensure team spirit and collective spirit. » An esprit de corps that is sorely lacking in its “ common base » since his appointment at Matignon.

“We will make progress to decide better together and listen to each other before making decisions, despite the extremely urgent circumstances”the Prime Minister told his troops, according to the services of government spokesperson Maud Bregeon after the meeting. A point which concerns substantive decisions “ in our respective sectors ”, but also the different “ public expressions » ministers outside their corridors.

Message received? For the head of government, it is a question of closing the ranks of his team, sitting on a fragile alloy of several chapels with sometimes contradictory priorities and shaken for several weeks by repeated controversies and hiccups.

List of hiccups

The track record is already long with the first skirmishes between the Minister of Justice and that of the Interior over the execution of prison sentences and the supposed laxity of magistrates, the clash between Bruno Retailleau and his Health counterpart Geneviève Darrieussecq on state medical aid (AME), or the hesitation-waltz on the price of gas between Agnès Pannier-Runacher (Ecological Transition) and Laurent Saint-Martin (Public Accounts). Not to mention the numerous ministers who have voiced their disapproval of their budget, going, for some, so far as to raise the music of a potential resignation.

This lack of unity is also seen on a daily basis in the National Assembly on budgetary texts that are little defended or even contested by part of the ” common base » LR – presidential camp. The executive has thus been defeated on numerous occasions on tax issues and major markers – such as the perpetuation of tax increases on the richest or the tax on electricity.

“There is a need that, in the pack that was formed around Michel Barnier, we try to define what we agree on so that it sparks a form of mobilization”recognized Sunday on France Inter the leader of the Modem deputies, Marc Fesneau. But this is not “does not mean that we are not completely aligned in a row that we are an opponent”.

Barnier not always listened to

In this context, Michel Barnier is therefore asking his ministers for unity for the weeks and months to come. But will it be heard? This is not the first time that the head of government has given instructions to his teams and made it known to the press. But they are not always followed up.

« No bragging », he asked them during the first Council of Ministers, last September. Result ? A few minutes later, several of them were commenting on the meeting on the news channels from their cars. Not to mention those who, like Bruno Retailleau, do not miss an opportunity to advance their own pawns, without necessarily the concrete action that accompanies the media offensive.

In Parliament, another episode shows the relative influence that Michel Barnier maintains over his troops. At the beginning of October, the Prime Minister expressed his concern about the lack of “ solidarity » within his coalition after a falling out between Laurent Wauquiez and Gabriel Attal which led to the unexpected election of the rebellious Aurélie Trouvé at the head of the Economic Affairs Committee of the Assembly. A sort of warning which did not prevent the same failure, a few days later, for the election of a new vice-president at the Palais Bourbon.

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