VALENTINE CHAPUIS / AFP
Bruno Retailleau, resigning Minister of the Interior, met the new Prime Minister François Bayrou on Friday December 13 evening.
POLITICS – He wants “guarantees”. While after several days of hesitation, Emmanuel Macron named François Bayrou Prime Minister, and the time has now come for the formation of a new government, the resigning Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, spoke with the new Prime Minister, Friday December 13 evening. The former tenant of Place Beauvau asked “to be confirmed in the roadmap that was his” under Michel Barnier, in the event of his reappointment as Minister of the Interior.
According to a source close to him at AFP, this meeting between the two men “allowed us to begin an essential discussion on the course to take to get France out of the institutional impasse and to meet the considerable challenges that lie ahead.” Still according to this source, discussions between François Bayrou and Bruno Retailleau are set to continue “in the days to come”.
To be reappointed at Place Beauvau in the Bayrou government, Bruno Retailleau wants “guarantees”. On immigration, there are “non-negotiable things”explains for example this same source, evoking “the drastic fight against illegal immigration” and the “reduction of legal immigration to what is strictly necessary”.
Bruno Retailleau also wishes to have the ” means “ to continue to “fight against insecurity and in particular drug trafficking”said those around him, while the fight against drug trafficking was one of the minister's hobbyhorses under Michel Barnier.
The rejection of the left's proposals
The Minister of the Interior also intended to discuss his overall political project with the new Prime Minister. “We know that we cannot do everything in a coalition government, but there are things that cannot be digested”explained those close to him.
“If the Prime Minister wants to put too strong left-wing markers on the table, it will not be digestible”the entourage once again insisted, citing for example “retirements” or the “juvenile justice”. It remains to be seen whether the next Prime Minister will manage not to be censored by the opposition and not suffer the same fate as Michel Barnier, who only stayed three months at Matignon.
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