A Prime Minister with absent subscribers. Gabriel Attal has not reappeared in public since June 9. Seen for the last time in his polling station at a school in Vanves (Hauts-de-Seine), late Sunday morning, the head of government, until now omnipresent on the political scene and in the media, did not has not been talked about since.
The microphones installed in the courtyard of the Matignon hotel for a declaration on Sunday evening were put away without having been used. The Prime Minister’s office has not released any details on his agenda for the week. The WhatsApp loop informing journalists of the activities of the Matignon tenant is now silent. As if all life had stopped on Rue de Varenne since the announcement of the dissolution.
The majority leader, who was to reappear Tuesday morning at the meeting of the Renaissance group at the National Assembly, has some reasons to step back. Kept away from the discussions which led the Head of State to dissolve the National Assembly on the evening of the defeat in the European elections, he was only informed of this decision at the last minute. Unlike the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who was in the know. “Dissolution, the President of the Republic does not talk about it”reassured Gabriel Attal at the end of May, when he tried to imagine the day after the European elections.
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So the Prime Minister was taken aback when he learned of Emmanuel Macron’s project. “It was a shock for everyone, including him”, agrees someone close to the head of state. Fearing a victory for the National Rally (RN), Gabriel Attal suggests that Emmanuel Macron take responsibility for the defeat and resign, as revealed on Monday by BFM-TV. “I am the fuse, I want to blow tonight”he argues. “You are not resigning, I need you to lead the legislative battle”Emmanuel Macron holds him back.
He finds the exercise “perilous”
Before 8 p.m., Emmanuel Macron brings together the tenors of his camp (Bruno Le Maire, Gérald Darmanin, Sébastien Lecornu, Rachida Dati, Stéphane Séjourné, Richard Ferrand or the president of the centrists of the UDI, Hervé Marseille) and formulates his idea. The Prime Minister, “not very good”, according to one participant, is limited to confirming that he will lead the campaign, as leader of the majority. Even if he finds exercise “perilous”he confided to a participant, on the sidelines of the meeting.
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