By Pascale Perrier
Published
December 20 at 7:06 a.m.
François Bayrou, who was recently appointed Prime Minister, has long been marked by the death of his friend, whom he considered his right arm for many years.
Complicated grief. On January 13, 2021, François Bayrou learned of the death of Marielle de Sarnez, his long-time friend. Died following a devastating leukemia at just the age of 69, the former MEP was in charge of François Bayrou’s campaign for the 2007 presidential elections.
For many years, the member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the International Commission in Brussels was considered the right hand of Michel Barnier’s successor. For more than forty years, the two formed an inseparable political duo. She was his “alter-ego”, as he had recalled The World. On the day of his death, the mayor of Pau wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Here is the extra day. Marielle, so talented and so courageous, Marielle de Sarnez has just left. Our grief is immense.”
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French Bayrou, who was appointed Prime Minister on December 13, is already under fire. Passing through the show C à Vous, the deputy for France Insoumise, Eric Coquerel, was clear: the government of Michel Barnier’s successor will not “he won’t make it through the winter!“. The chairman of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly then returned to François Bayrou’s speech in the hemicycle. “Why was he so uncomfortable this afternoon? What is the underlying problem that makes this politician, who is rather brilliant, so uncomfortable?», he then asks himself. “It’s that when you are Prime Minister of such a minority government in the Assembly, with so few people supporting you, it’s not possible to be comfortable.”