Elizabeth Borne finds it “incredible that one can imagine” that she “could have been homosexual and not said it”

Élisabeth Borne was a guest on France Inter this Wednesday, October 23. While she was questioned about rumors that punctuated her political career, the former Prime Minister confided that she found it “incredible that anyone could imagine” that she “could have been homosexual and not said it” .

“I really didn’t understand,” said MP Renaissance. “There are lots of politicians who have no problem saying they are homosexual,” she continued, assuring that if she had been, she would “have had no problem.” problem to say it.

“There are little rumors that continue”

“But there are little rumors that continue,” regretted the former Prime Minister who, when she was at the head of the government, was keen to preserve her private life. She considered that it was a question of “the vagaries of political life”.

His successor at Matignon, Gabriel Attal, was delighted, in his general policy declaration before the National Assembly on Tuesday January 30, to “be able to be Prime Minister while openly accepting his homosexuality”.

We have the impression that there are two categories of Prime Ministers, men and women.

In a book published this Wednesday (“Twenty months in Matignon”, Flammarion editions), Élisabeth Borne looks back on her personal journey and her experience of power, marked by the painful pension and immigration reforms. She also denounces sexism in politics. “It wasn’t easy,” she said. “We have the impression that there are two categories of Prime Ministers, men and women,” lamented Élisabeth Borne, the second woman to have held this position after Édith Cresson (1991-1992).

“With Emmanuel Macron, we clearly have a difference in temperament”

The former prefect and boss of the RATP, who was advisor to Lionel Jospin at Matignon then minister and Prime Minister in the governments of Emmanuel Macron, looks back on her relations with the head of state. “With Emmanuel Macron, we clearly have a difference in temperament. He probably takes my conviction that it is never in our interest to humiliate anyone as weakness. He is quite Darwinian,” she writes in particular.

Elisabeth Borne also recounts the announcement of her appointment to Matignon in the Élysée office, three weeks after the president's re-election in 2022. “What mode of operation does he envisage between us? We are not going into details that morning, but Emmanuel Macron told me that, during this second five-year term, he intends to “gain greater heights and perspective”. I spontaneously tend to trust my interlocutors and believe what I am told. Especially when I fully agree with what I hear! », she writes.

“Avoid the divide between territorial and national elected officials”.

The former Prime Minister pleads in this book for the establishment of a non-renewable seven-year term for the president. The head of state would no longer chair the Council of Ministers, a role which would fall to the head of government. She strongly insists on her wish to see “proportionality established at the departmental level for the National Assembly” and wishes to “rediscover possibilities for combining mandates” to “avoid the divide between territorial and national elected officials”.

The former Prime Minister also works to dismantle the attitude and proposals of the National Rally and equally harshly criticizes La France insoumise, accused of favoring the RN and of having, with the rest of the left, “caricatured the use of 49.3”.