In profile, we look a bit like Emmanuel Macron. Same antique straight nose, same size, same look. His title to Official Journal : “special envoy for Libya”. Almost no one knows his name. Paul Soler, 45, a former special forces soldier, is one of the most secret collaborators at the Elysée, where, moreover, he almost never visits, as he is often out and about. He is in truth much more than that: a sort of personal diplomat of the president.
Its missions extend from the Maghreb to the Sahel, but also as far as Ukraine and Russia, the Ivory Coast, the Central African Republic, Syria and Iraq. They consist of going to sensitive areas, encouraging opposition from enemy states and taking advantage of what remains of French influence in Africa, outside the usual circuits of the Quai d'Orsay. “OK, fire!” »says the president when he launches this former member of the 13th on a delicate mission.e paratrooper dragoon regiment, who became a diplomat. Paul Soler is one of those guys « out of the box »as the boys of the “start-up nation” said, at the beginning of Macronism, to describe these non-conformist profiles that Emmanuel Macron loves. He only reports to « chef »as he designates the president, whom he has known for ten years.
In the fall of 2023, France is discreetly seeking to deliver medicines for hostages – including several French – held in Gaza since October 7 and the Hamas terrorist incursion into Israel. “Mr Paul”, as he is sometimes called, sets his atypical networks in motion. Medical aid must travel through Doha, Cairo and Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, through the Red Cross, then contacts within Hamas. Paul Soler is still in the circuit when Mia Schem, 21, a young Franco-Israeli woman kidnapped during the attack on the Tribe of Nova music festival on October 7, is released. Of one-to-onediscreet, effective, in short, the diplomacy that Macron secretly dreams of.
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