It didn’t take long. Barely leaving the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in kyiv on January 13, the phone of Stéphane Séjourné, appointed Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs two days before, rang. “So, what did he tell you?” », asks Emmanuel Macron from the Elysée. Shadow of the French president on the international scene, this son of expatriates, who spent his youth between Mexico, Spain and Argentina, “in the place he always dreamed of”, said a minister smiling. A bit overwhelming though. When he crosses the portrait gallery of the ministry, the figures of two of his predecessors, Léon Blum and Pierre Mendès France, impress him more than any other. By inscribing his name in this lineage, he must“be up to the task”, entrust to World the youngest foreign minister of the Ve Republic, 38 years old on the day of his appointment.
Read the analysis: Article reserved for our subscribers At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the faithful Macronist Stéphane Séjourné succeeds Catherine Colonna
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Ironically, the man who wanted to be a pilot at 16 – he has his license – spends a large part of his time in the Falcons of the Republic, because, he says, “you have to know how to jump on a plane, in a very opportunistic way.” And to quote his American counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as a ” expert “ in this matter. Between foreign ministers, “we communicate directly by messaging, without diplomatic or intermediary notes”boasts Stéphane Séjourné.
Discreet in the European campaign, the minister and head of the presidential party is mainly interested in the distribution of posts in Brussels after June 9. He is working on the construction of the future institutional Meccano, in order to propose to the Head of State a certain number of scenarios for “top jobs”. To pass “deals” in foreign capitals, he has the confidence of Emmanuel Macron, who says of him that he is “transactional”. “For him, politics is strategy”, approves a former deputy of La République en marche. While Clément Beaune, former Minister Delegate for Europe, defines it as “a macronist who loves devices”. Suffice it to say, a rare case.
“A shy ambitious man”
Uncomfortable in public, the new head of French diplomacy shuns social life. Invited to the state dinner given in honor of France at the royal palace in Stockholm, at the end of January, by the king and queen of Sweden, where tailcoats and bow ties were required, the former student unionist declined, while other ministers pushed themselves. ” You’re funny !, was surprised Emmanuel Macron, who has known him for ten years. The others rush, and you don’t…? » “Stéphane is a shy ambitious man, confides one of his former comrades. He is afraid of the light, but it attracts him. »
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