Government reshuffle mood

The traditional lunch at the Elysee Palace between the Head of State and the Prime Minister did not take place on Monday June 12. Elisabeth Borne, for the 17e times since his arrival at Matignon, was preparing to defend himself against a motion of censure. As she climbed up to the podium of the National embly, no sign of weariness crossed the face of the Prime Minister, certain that the “decibels” oppositions will resound in vain. “There is no alternative majority in Parliament”she erts before escaping, once again, the ax. Without sweeping away the impression of wear and tear, however, as feverishness spreads to the ministerial staffs where the noise of a government reshuffle intensifies which could make the Hôtel de Matignon tremble. “Madame Elisabeth Borne, sooner or later you will fall”, provokes the “rebellious” MP Mathilde Panot.

Emmanuel Macron may have renewed, at regular intervals, his confidence in Elisabeth Borne, he never dispelled doubts as he did in the time of Jean Castex. “If you want a scoop, I’m not going to change the prime minister”he dismissed without ambiguity in the magazine She, in June 2021. Since the start of the pension crisis, the Head of State has been blowing a hot and cold wind, in a fog which should clear up by July 14 at the latest. We will then be at the end of “one hundred days of peace” decreed during his speech of April 17.

The anger against the pension reform, which threw millions of French people into the streets, is fading, stifled by presidential activism. A page can be turned, we think at the Elysée. How far ? The question of political meaning is not settled: is there a need for a managerial reshuffle, as we say at Matignon, which would mark the failure of ministers from the ” civil society “ ? Or a reshuffle for political purposes, which would continue the righting of the five-year term?

A “knife to the throat”

In the maximalist scenario developed around Emmanuel Macron, a new prime minister could materialize a rapprochement with Les Républicains (LR). The threat by Olivier Marleix, boss of the LR deputies, to table a motion of censure if the LR proposals on immigration were not heard, is perceived as a “knife to the throat”. But a hypothetical coalition with the right is phosphorizing the presidential camp. The leader of Renaissance, Stéphane Séjourné, invited the parliamentarians of the majority to the party’s headquarters on June 21 to discuss this strategy. “LR is both the ally and the main opponentunderlines Loïc Signor, spokesperson for the Macronist party. The right has the power to bring down a government, like the corpse that dreams of firing the last bullet. »

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