La Girondine Nathalie Delattre extends her lease to the government. But will change wallet. No more relations with Parliament, a function exercised alongside Michel Barnier: she inherits tourism in the government of François Bayrou, whose composition was announced this Monday, December 23.
This retention as delegate minister suggests a double reading. The former vice-president of the Senate spared no effort. Nor did she demerit, in what must be called an impossible mission: to tie the thread of dialogue between the government and an assembly without a majority, divided into 11 political groups.
The second element to take into account is more political. For the casting of his government, François Bayrou had to accommodate the same ingredients as his predecessor. In the absence of participation from the PS and the moderate left, he drew on the numbers of LR, the former presidential majority and the center to compose his team. In this context, Nathalie Delattre is essential. Since September 2024, she has chaired the Radical Party, a modest formation which has the merit of bringing a nuance of this famous central bloc. She thus benefits from the “small training bonus”.
Change of status
For the former senator from Gironde, being kept in government allows her to expand her CV on the national scene. This comes as an extension of a busy political journey. Beginnings in Dordogne in the wake of the Gaullist Yves Guéna. In 2007, living in Gironde (she is a winegrower), she was spotted by Alain Juppé. She became deputy mayor of Bordeaux the following year. She is the first mayor of the Bordeaux Maritime district and its 40,000 inhabitants. “A right-wing woman who had the difficult task of managing an oppositional neighborhood, with an ability to avoid confrontation,” explains the communist Vincent Maurin, current mayor of the sector. Qualities that work wonders in the Senate, where she was elected for the first time in 2017 and re-elected in 2020. It did not take long for her to distinguish herself there: law committee then vice-presidency. She became close to President LR Gérard Larcher. On the local scene, she is identified as unwavering and unvarnished support for the wine industry, or for her opposition to the LGV.
In tourism, it inherits a strategic portfolio: the sector accounts for nearly 2 million jobs in the region and represents around 7.5% of French GDP. This new chapter which opens for her marks her change in status. A little music has been ringing out in Bordeaux for weeks: Nathalie Delattre is seen as a credible option in the municipal elections. Several mayors of the Metropolis and part of the economic world are committed to the thesis and would gladly see it lead a list of union of the right and the center, instead of the Florian/Cazenave pair losing in 2020. “It is obvious that Bordeaux needs a new lease of life. It’s up to us to define it. The time of incarnation will come next,” she explained the day after the “Yalta of the right and center of Bordeaux”.
