Gérald Darmanin and marriage for all, Edouard Philippe and the Covid… these political mea culpa

2023: Gérald Darmanin was “mistaken”

Gerald Darmanin in 2014. PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP

Ten years after the adoption of the law on marriage for all, in 2013, Gérald Darmanin admitted, in an interview given to The voice of the North, on April 20, having ” deceived “ by voting at the time, as a UMP deputy from the North, against the opening of this new right. “The fears that had been exposed by the right, and in particular in my political family, were unfounded”, said the Minister of the Interior. The former participant of The strike for allwho dreams of being appointed prime minister, also knows that the president of Greater Reims, Catherine Vautrin, saw Matignon escape her, in 2022, for opposing the measure.

2021: Alain Juppé faced with his “half-measures”

Alain Juppe in 1995. PIERRE BOUSSEL / AFP

On April 7, 2021, Alain Juppé publishes a column in The world following the delivery to Emmanuel Macron of the report led by historian Vincent Duclert on the role of France in Rwanda from 1990 to 1994. If the latter exonerates Paris from accusations of complicity in the genocide of the Tutsi – “nothing in the archives consulted proves it” –, it points at the same time “a set of heavy and overwhelming responsibilities” of the French state. “For almost thirty years, we carried, I carried this wound of not having succeeded in preventing this terror”, recognizes Alain Juppé, at the time Minister of Foreign Affairs (1993-1995), regretting “half measures” face To “genocidal horror”.

2021: the “regrets” of Edouard Philippe

Edward Philippe in 2020. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / POOL / AFP

Ten months after leaving Matignon, Edouard Philippe sketches a mea culpa in his management of the Covid-19 epidemic. On April 19, 2021, on Europe 1, the mayor of Le Havre “regret” so as not to have “formulated a little more caution or nuance in a number of opinions”, as on the presumed uselessness of wearing a mask to fight against the virus. This doctrine, then supported by the World Health Organization, will be quickly contradicted. “I repeated it with great ***urance, repents Edouard Philippe. But it’s true that now I tell myself that, if I had put a little nuance in it, I would have looked less…”

2018: François Hollande recognizes an “error”

Francois Hollande in 2018. ESTELLE RUIZ / NURPHOTO VIA AFP

A year after leaving the Elysée, François Hollande publishes the book The lessons of power (Stock, 2018) in which it tries to rehabilitate its balance sheet. The former head of state concedes a ” error “ : that of having tried to introduce the forfeiture of French nationality for dual national terrorists. A proposal which aimed to attract the good graces of the right and the far right in the aftermath of the 2015 attacks, but which fractured the left. “I withdraw a text designed to unite and which ends up dividing”, comments François Hollande about his failure to impose this idea, while denying having acted by “political calculation”.

2002: the “naivety” of Lionel Jospin

Lionel Jospin in 2002. JOEL ROBINE / AFP

On March 3, 2002, six weeks before the first round of the presidential election, Lionel Jospin admitted having shown “naivety” in the face of growing insecurity during his five years at Matignon (1997-2002). “I thought maybe for a while: ‘If we reduce unemployment, we will reduce insecurity’”, regrets the socialist in an interview with the 8 p.m. newspaper of TF1. A gap that will favor its elimination from the second round of the ballot in favor of Jacques Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen the day after a campaign dominated by this theme.

Olivier Faye