Almost five months in government and then he leaves. Emmanuel Macron ended this Monday, “at his request”, the functions of the Delegate Minister for Local Authorities Caroline Cayeux, whose powers are resumed by her colleague in charge of Rurality Dominique Faure. In question: a declaration of assets to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP). This is considered “undervalued” by this body created in 2013 after the Cahuzac case.
For her part, Caroline Cayeux defended herself in a press release. She claims “to have aligned herself with the assessments” of the High Authority, which “continues to question her sincerity,” according to her.
In reality, this resignation “fixed everyone”, according to Matthieu Croissandeau.
Caroline Cayeux “spoke this weekend with the prime minister who asked her to resign so as not to have to manage an additional case,” our political columnist advances.
“This people”
Remember that the minister’s case comes “two days after the opening of an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office on the 2017 and 2022 presidential campaigns and the role that consulting firms could have played” was revealed. Thus, according to Matthieu Croissandeau, it is up to the executive to avoid “seeing a new open front.”
Above all, Caroline Cayeux, “nobody will miss him,” he analyzes, due to the controversy surrounding his homophobic statements. It all started on July 12 on the set of Public Sénat. The former mayor of Les Républicains (LR) de Beauvais is questioned about her declarations on marriage for all in 2013, which she later described as “reform of whim and design that goes against nature”.
The Minister explained in the first place that “she maintains [ses] about”, before continuing: “I must tell you anyway, I have many friends among these people.” In the process, several members of the government disassociate themselves, such as Clément Beaune, the transport minister, who responds “to be one of those people”.
“Emmanuel Macron has lost touch with his openness policy”
For her part, Caroline Cayeux seeks to deflate the controversy. She regrets “stupid and clumsy” comments in the columns of the Parisian and says that he wrote a letter of apology to the associations against homophobia.
This was enough so far for the executive to keep him in office. As recently as last week, Caroline Cayeux stood by Emmanuel Macron during the head of state’s tour of the Salon des Maires.
For Matthieu Croissandeau, “this new episode shows that Emmanuel Macron has lost touch with his policy of openness”. He thus recalls that Caroline Cayeux “was part of the war captures of the right in the summer of 2022 with Damien Abad or Christophe Béchu”, during the composition of the first government of Elisabeth Borne. However, “the first, mired in its accusations of sexist and sexual violence, was dismissed in favor of a remodeling,” a month later. While “the second, who is nevertheless in charge of the key ministry of Ecological Transition, shines more for his discretion than for his action.”
Source: BFM TV
