She is one of the survivors of the Barnier government. Little known to the general public, Sophie Primas, former vice-president of the Senate, will be responsible this Friday for reporting on François Bayrou's first Council of Ministers. An unprecedented mission since the 62-year-old former senator, long affiliated with the Republicans (LR), is the first government spokesperson not to come from the presidential party… since the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017.
Under Michel Barnier, Sophie Primas served at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and French People Abroad. A quick visit during which she was very critical of the free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur. Since the censorship which brought down Michel Barnier, the new executive knows itself to be fragile, and hopes to last longer than the previous government team — only 91 days. “We are in a period of institutional instability where we have changed Prime Ministers three times in one year. We will have to find ways of passage and move this new team forward together,” Sophie Primas admitted to Le Monde.
Criticism of Bayrou
Create cohesion, despite dissensions. The mission turns out to be delicate. Especially since in the past, this close friend of Gérard Larcher, the LR president of the Senate, has never hidden her disagreements with François Bayrou. As for many elected officials on the right, the call from the president of MoDem to vote for François Hollande and not Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 remains a betrayal. In June 2017, the new government spokesperson was even delighted to see François Bayrou leave the government after a month, entangled in the affair of the MoDem parliamentary assistants.
How then can we explain his recent rise to spokesperson? “Because it is an LR which wants to show a government of unity of forces”, judges to franceinfo a close friend of the right-wing elected official. A novice in this position, Sophie Primas is however far from being so when we look at her political CV.
This trained agricultural engineer, born in Saint-Mandé (Val-de-Marne), began her career in Yvelines, as deputy to the Aubergenville town hall in 2001. Then, she held local and national mandates, by becoming a deputy for Yvelines (2010 and 2011) under the UMP label, mayor of Aubergenville (from 2014 to 2017), senator (2011 to 2024) and finally vice-president of the Senate (2023 to 2024).
A divide with the Ciotti line
Despite a solid right-wing anchorage, it oscillates between several currents. She thus displayed her support for François Fillon for the right-wing primary in 2016, before joining Valérie Pécresse's campaign team in 2022. More recently, she slammed the door of the Republican party in June, after a deep disagreement with the line of Eric Ciotti.
“There was no question of the party I have been in for years allying with the National Rally. If a right or left government does not emerge, there will only be extremes in government,” she explained. From now on, she would have moved closer to the “New Energy” movement of David Lisnard, the LR mayor of Cannes.
While claiming a deep attachment to Yvelines. “I am one of those parliamentarians opposed to cutting the link between national and local territory,” she defended to Le Monde. A position which brings her closer to François Bayrou, defender of a return to the accumulation of mandates for parliamentarians.
