Matignon Circus. Two months after the second round of the legislative elections, marked by the highest turnout in thirty years, Emmanuel Macron still has not managed to learn the lessons of the vote, his interminable consultations turning into a farce. Against a backdrop of back-and-forths in the courtyard of the Elysée, of misinformation and trial balloons, the ratings of one and the other rise and fall, in a pitiful pendulum movement.
One day, it was the former prime minister of François Hollande, Bernard Cazeneuve – whose name and positioning “center left” were put forward as obvious last week by the palace advisors – who seem to be holding the rope… Another day, it is the president (Les Républicains, LR) of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand, who is the favorite… Between the two, the name of a complete unknown to the French – the president of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, Thierry Beaudet, for whom the Elysée had started looking for a chief of staff, emerged, before immediately deflating. Splash, splash, here we go again…
“Matignon: Macron tests one name per day!”could be read on Tuesday, September 3, on a banner of the continuous news channel BFM-TV. The exclamation point, unusual, underlines the surreal tone of the moment.
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And while the commentators are laughing, more or less discreetly, on the sets, comedians and evil spirits of all stripes are having a field day. On Sunday, when new consultations were announced at the Elysée, a former advisor to François Hollande, Gaspard Gantzer, reeled off on X: “On Tuesday, he will receive all the former prime ministers since 1981. On Wednesday, the Césars for best actor since 1977. On Thursday, the winners of the Tour de France since 1958…” As for the former advisor to the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, Ziad Gebran, now with the insurer Axa, he called on Tuesday on X to the divinatory talents of “Paul the Octopus”.
Errors of judgment and procrastination
Throughout the summer, Emmanuel Macron played with the small political world like a cat with mice, throwing the ball sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left or even to the center (the famous hypothesis « technique »). “I saw those who went for a walk this summer…”he slipped, amused, to the boss of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, received at the Elysée. To characterize the work of “decantation”supposed to reduce the field of possibilities, the president’s close associates summon the image of the funnel. But it is he himself who has put himself there. And the more the one who believes he has the upper hand waits, the more he appears, on the contrary, overwhelmed.
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