Emmanuel Macron has appointed one of his closest lieutenants, Stéphane Séjourné, to replace Thierry Breton as European Commissioner.
A long-time Macronist and the youngest Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the Fifth Republic since his appointment in January, Stéphane Séjourné was proposed by the French president as European Commissioner, with broader powers, after the resounding resignation of Thierry Breton, who was in charge of the Internal Market.
Stéphane Séjourné was “president of the Renew group (centrists and liberals, editor's note) in the European Parliament during the previous legislature and meets all the required criteria. His European commitment will allow him to fully carry out this sovereignty agenda”, the Élysée stressed on Monday. The portfolio entrusted to the French commissioner should be “expanded” to “competitiveness financing tools”, and given the status of executive vice-president, a European Source indicated.
A loyal follower of Emmanuel Macron for ten years
The son of expatriates, Stéphane Séjourné grew up between Spain, Mexico and Argentina, where his political commitment was born in 2001 while the South American country was at the height of its economic crisis. During his studies, which saw him graduate with a double master's degree in law from the University of Poitiers, Stéphane Séjourné joined the ranks of the National Union of Students of France (Unef) and the Young Socialist Movement (MJS), and supported Dominique Strauss-Kahn's candidacy in the 2012 presidential election.
In 2014, he joined Emmanuel Macron at the Ministry of the Economy as an advisor in charge of relations with elected officials and the following year co-founded the Youth with Macron movement. His loyalty to the man who would arrive at the Élysée three years later propelled him to the position of political advisor to the President of the Republic in 2017. He left this position at the end of 2018 to lead the campaign of the LREM list (later renamed Renaissance) for the European elections the following year, before being elected president of the democratic and liberal alliance Renew Europe in the European Parliament.
A too discreet passage at the Quai d'Orsay
Long expected to lead the list for the European elections, Stéphane Séjourné was finally appointed, on January 11, 2024, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs in the government of Gabriel Attal and remains to this day one of Emmanuel Macron's closest advisors. His entourage then highlighted “his adaptability”, confident that he would take on all the issues with enthusiasm.
But “in all objectivity, on his record at the Quai d'Orsay, we are hard pressed to find anything”, sums up eight months later a diplomat from the ministry, who regrets the minister's inability to make France's voice heard while wars continue in Ukraine or Gaza and Paris redraws its policy in Africa. “The brevity of his mandate worked against him, he believes. As did his dual role: domestic policy and diplomacy.”
“Of the eight months spent at the Quai, the minister was focused for five months on the European elections, then on the legislative elections,” notes the same diplomat.
Some foreign ambassadors in Paris do not hide their disappointment: “he was simply absent,” regrets one of them. “His predecessor Catherine Colonna was much criticized, but she was a professional diplomat, a great professional who was interested in international issues,” observes another. In public, Stéphane Séjourné seemed uncomfortable with speaking out, which led several ministry officials to say that “he never embodied the role.”
Elected deputy during the last legislative elections
The president had also installed this close advisor, praised in the outgoing majority for his political acumen, at the head of the Renaissance party in 2022. “Because he is the only one among his close friends who knows how to manage a political party. Because it is he who, in the event of dissolution, knows how to run a campaign and knows how to manage the interests of the majority,” explained a close friend at the time.
Last July, Stéphane Séjourné was elected deputy for the 9th constituency of Hauts-de-Seine and thus gained his first seat as a national deputy. Very close to President Macron, Stéphane Séjourné, 39, was according to several sources one of the few to have learned before Sunday evening, June 9, of the dissolution decided by the President of the Republic.
