People flock to the Elysée party hall. This Friday, December 6, there are a hundred, maybe more, surrounding Clément Léonarduzzi. The former special advisor to the President of the Republic was decorated that evening with the National Order of Merit, second grade of the Legion of Honor. Many of the clients of the man who is now vice-president of Publicis France made the trip. Bernard Arnault, extremely wealthy boss of LVMH, Maurice Lévy (Publicis) and Alexandre Bompard (Carrefour) are among the guests, alongside resigning ministers, such as Jean-Noël Barrot (foreign affairs) or Rachida Dati (culture).
In front of this prestigious floor, Emmanuel Macron, moved, evokes the journey of “little guy from Vincennes” who grew up in a happy family, but not necessarily “in the right suburb”is “at the right address”. A “epic of republican rise”, he says, which will lead this middle-class child to the Elysée. “You are a Stendhalian hero”continues the head of state. We toast this success. Suspended moment…
Behind the palace gates, a historic political crisis is brewing. On December 4, the government of Michel Barnier was overthrown by a motion of censure. Emmanuel Macron is now targeted. The radical left and the far right are calling for the resignation of the head of state, whose popular legitimacy they contest. Since the dissolution of June 9, the presidential camp no longer has a majority, even relative, in the Assembly.
A tear
Officially, Clément Léonarduzzi has nothing to do with state affairs and presidential concerns. The man left rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré in 2022, after winning the re-election of Emmanuel Macron. His mind is now fully occupied by his CAC40 clients and the organization of the grandiose ceremony for the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris on Saturday, where the President of the Republic must occupy a central place.
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But the forty-year-old, eternal admirer of Emmanuel Macron, whom he has known for almost ten years, is angry to see him fall from grace. Does he feel a bit of guilt? Clément Léonarduzzi is no stranger to this dissolution, which put an end to the second five-year term, deprived the President of the Republic of most of his powers and made the Macronist camp bitter. The communicator is part, with the memory advisor, Bruno Roger-Petit, the communications strategist of the Elysée, Jonathan Guémas, and the former right-wing senator, Pierre Charon, of those whom the press has baptized the “apprentice sorcerers of dissolution”. Everyone, made aware of this decision that they helped to prepare, were present that evening.
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