The end of recess. Emmanuel Macron expressed his annoyance this Tuesday morning during the Council of Ministers against certain members of his government team. The president did not like that they chose to publicly show their differences, and he asked them to avoid any “demagogy.” His teammates are hardly more tender with their neighbors on the bench.
Starting with Bruno Le Maire. The Minister of Economy recognized this Sunday on France 3 a “drift” on the part of the “government and precedents”, regarding the use of consulting companies.
Disagreement in public square
These comments, unprecedented by a member of the executive on this matter, led Olivier Véran to respond harshly the next day.
“I don’t know what a drift or an abuse is,” he replied on France inter, taking into his account an expression by Bruno Le Maire who had assured last August “not knowing what a super benefit was.”
Mayor accused of acting alone
The dissemination of such dissent in public was enough to upset the president who last Friday during his trip to Dijon took care to show a serene face. The Head of State assured that he was not “in the heart of the McKinsey affair” and wants to avoid greasing this highly sensitive file.
“Bruno Le Maire is playing it alone, he wanted to give himself the right role by criticizing the use of consultants,” screams a minister present this Tuesday morning at the Elysée, with BFMTV.
Did the 50-year-old tell himself he had gone too far? The use of consultants “is useful, sometimes necessary, but it should not be abused. That is why he spoke of abuse,” explained one of his relatives on Monday.
“Too bad for the collective”
However, it is difficult not to see in these differences the beginnings of a party between the Macronistas in the race for the next presidential elections. While Emmanuel Macron will not be able to run for a third term in 2027, a number of ministers are increasingly thinking ahead, with Bruno Le Maire at the top of the list.
“He no longer hides his ambition, wanting to give a good image of himself, and shame on the group,” one of his colleagues still laments.
As if to prepare, the Bercy tenant has multiplied face-to-face coffees with Renaissance deputies in recent months. Enarque also reached out to Stéphane Séjourné, the new head of the party.
“I advise you not to skip the stages. In the hare and the tortoise, it is the tortoise that wins. The hare, no one thinks about that anymore, except in his behavior ”, he gets annoyed in the entourage of a minister.
“No time to lose”
These tensions are exacerbated as the coming months promise to be complicated for the Executive between rising prices, fears of possible power outages and the highly flammable pension reform.
“Winter is coming, it can be complicated: we don’t have time to waste,” a member of the executive translates emphatically.
If Bruno Le Maire is annoying, he is not the only one who has shown his difference. Clément Beaune and Gabriel Attal, who would target the mayor of Paris in 2026, expressed very different views on the prospect of putting the capital under supervision, given the explosion of its debt.
“Take care of inflation first”
For the Transport Minister interviewed on CNEWS on Sunday, this possibility should be well considered “as a last resort”. Response from his colleague in charge of Public Accounts at BFMTV in the process: “I don’t think this has any relevance.”
While a Renaissance victory in the capital in 2026 seems possible, after the catastrophic 2020 municipal elections, these opposing positions have a negative effect.
“Gabriel Attal and Clément Beaune are already thinking about the Paris council… First let’s deal with inflation and transportation problems. We’ll see Hidalgo’s case later,” a member of the “executive” gets angry.
“Differences” as in “all groups”
Some within the government, however, try to put into perspective the bad atmosphere that reigns in the government seats, evoking many “differences”, “as in all political groups.”
The mood is unlikely to improve in the coming weeks with the presentation of the immigration bill that could divide the government, following a debate in the National Assembly on December 6.
Source: BFM TV
