The first time he set foot in this office was in 1977 and Raymond Barre occupied it. At the age of 26, he was preparing to be a candidate in the legislative elections the following year, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. He had come to request the support of the Prime Minister. Forty-four years later, he is now the one installed on the first floor of this charming hotel located at 57, rue de Varenne. In the room where François Bayrou received yesterday, early in the afternoon, La Tribune Sundayeverything is still empty. Either way, the new tenant won’t put anything personal there. Neither object nor photo. “ We must never forget that we are passing through, he says. Although it may last… »
And for him, how long will this last? More than Michel Barnier, who remained in office for ninety-nine days? François Bayrou always believed that he would only be called upon if everything had become hopeless. Friday, at the end of an incredible soap opera, it was him that Emmanuel Macron chose to become Prime Minister. Despite the absence of a parliamentary majority and the budgetary impasse, the boss of MoDem does not want to limit his ambitions. “ My primary vocation is to be a builder and, failing that, a repairerhe says. I love nothing more in life than bringing back to life buildings, machines, that everyone considered lost. I like to repair.» In Pau, his city, this is what he did. He designed a renovation program called “metamorphosis”.
Bayrou maneuvers to build a new government
Pierre Moscovici, the first president of the Court of Auditors, François Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the Bank of France, Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the Assembly, Gérard Larcher, his counterpart in the Senate: this Saturday, the first appointments followed one another. The evening before, he had received Bruno Retailleau. With the Minister of the Interior in office for barely three months, the interview went well. Everything indicates that he will stay on his team. At the same time, this will guarantee LR’s participation in it.
First step point
For a long time, François Bayrou has called for the formation of a government bringing together experienced men and women, knowing what the daily life of the French is like, coming from all backgrounds but determined to work together. To define it, in recent months, he added an adjective: “ respectable “. This is what he will now work to compose. Xavier Bertrand, Gérald Darmanin, Élisabeth Borne, François Rebsamen… The names of those who could join him are starting to circulate. “ We must invent an authority that the French understand, in which they recognize themselves and where they know that they will have their place “, he argues.
The Béarnais wants a power capable of speaking again to the part of the country which cannot cope. On the steps of Matignon, during his handover of power on Friday, with Michel Barnier, it is no coincidence that he recalled the initial promise of emancipation from macronism. Over the years, he may have regretted that the head of state found himself a prisoner of people from privileged backgrounds among privileged backgrounds.
Leaving the Élysée on Friday morning, François Bayrou called Richard Ferrand: “I want to see you.”
At the start of the week, he will see Emmanuel Macron to provide a first progress update. To what extent will the psychodrama of his appointment on Friday leave its mark? “ You are President of the Republic, you have to choose a Prime Minister in particularly difficult times; it’s okay that you take the time to consider all the options and their consequencesputs François Bayrou into perspective. I have never known a president who agreed to tie his hands. The presidential office is a function that calls for freedom. »
Matignon had been preparing for this for months now. In 2017, the day after the election of Emmanuel Macron, he saw his wings clipped, indicted in the affair of the MoDem parliamentary assistants and forced to resign from the Ministry of Justice which he had occupied since only a month. On February 5, after the acquittal he received, for the first time the road really became clear, even if the prosecution appealed. The High Commissioner for Planning knows that nothing will be obvious. He has long understood that Emmanuel Macron had always been reluctant to appoint him to Matignon when the question had arisen. Moreover, since 2017, he has never really understood his choices for this address – the one who finds the most favor in his eyes is Jean Castex.
France’s debt: Moody’s warning to François Bayrou
This time, he intends not to miss his chance. From the middle of autumn, he perceived that the RN would censor the government on budgetary texts. How could a populist party allow unpopular measures to pass? On December 5, once his prophecy came true, he had lunch with the head of state, who asked him how he would deal with this fractured Assembly. On Tuesday, they meet again at length to discuss the composition of his government. When, Friday morning, the Béarnais arrives at the Élysée, he arrives with a psychological advantage. The day before, he understood that he was not the one who would be chosen.
All night, he rehearsed his arguments to confront the president. When, in his office, he announces that he is going to appoint Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces, the centrist very coldly explains to him what the consequences will then be. Since it’s not him, it will be without him. For seven years, there may have been misunderstandings between them, moments of tension which could provoke François Bayrou for a few weeks of sulking. This time, it’s over. Seeing Bernard Cazeneuve join Matignon, he would have completely accepted it. But Sébastien Lecornu, for whom he has no consideration, he will not let him pass.
Lower the tension
« I’ll remind you. » This is how Emmanuel Macron ends their very tense exchange, which lasted more than an hour and a half. The head of state meets with his close guard to think about how to escape from the trap in which he is trapped. Leaving the Élysée, François Bayrou joined Richard Ferrand. “ I want to see you », he says to the former president of the Assembly, who is one of those closest to the president and pleads for the appointment of the boss of the MoDem to Matignon.
Twenty-four hours later, François Bayrou works to reduce the tension. “ The relationship with the president is first and foremost a personal relationship he declares. He is a man whose audacity and courage people may not realize. There is nothing easier for me than working with him. I will be a Prime Minister in full exercise and complementarity. Those who want to write the story of a clash between the Élysée and Matignon will be proven wrong. »
“Those who want to write the story of a clash between the Elysée and Matignon will be denied François Bayrou. »
Will this be enough? The president has already informed his Prime Minister that he did not appreciate the media coverage of his appointment. “ When you know Emmanuel Macron a little, you know that he will only have one idea in mind: to make him pay », predicts a spawning of the common base. “It will be necessary to protect François Bayrou from… François Bayrou », concludes a close friend of the head of state, sybillinely.
The Breton is in the middle of moving. The centrist therefore goes to his home. During the coffee they share, Richard Ferrand reassures him: the outcome will be happy for him. Suddenly, the cell phone of the mayor of Pau rings. The head of state asks him to return to the Élysée. During their second meeting of the day, Emmanuel Macron will tell him: “It’s you. » A few minutes before the official Élysée press release falls, he will contact Sébastien Lecornu. “I had to appoint François Bayrou because otherwise he would leave the central block», he will guarantee-t‑il.
Faced with “the seriousness of the situation”, François Bayrou “does not want to hide anything” from the French
Friday, during their second meeting, he asked his Prime Minister to hold a meeting like the one that took place Tuesday at the Élysée with all the political forces with the exception of LFI and the RN. Initially, the mayor of Pau, who wants to bind himself as little as possible to parties, will receive the presidents of the parliamentary groups face to face on Monday and Tuesday. It will proceed in order of numerical importance. Marine Le Pen, president of the RN group, will be the first.
Last winter, Gérard Longuet came to find François Bayrou. “You are the last politician“, the former Minister of Defense had praised him. This fall, observing the first steps of Michel Barnier at Matignon, the boss of MoDem noted the difficulties of the former European commissioner in reconnecting with a national political game from which he had escaped fifteen years ago. Often the three-time presidential candidate, who during his career challenged Giscard, Chirac and Sarkozy, was annoyed by a youthism too linked to his taste for macronism. Since last winter, the septuagenarian has started reading Proust. He had never done it. For a long time, there was a snobbery about him. When young, he liked to brag: “I’m taking the agreg to say that I don’t like Proust.» In search of lost time. For him, it’s now.
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