Barely installed in her office at the sumptuous Hôtel du Châtelet, rue de Grenelle, this Friday, January 12, Catherine Vautrin calls Jean-Louis Borloo. In the chair of Minister of Labor, she thinks back to the latter’s words when, in 2004, he sat in the same place opposite her, his Secretary of State. “Time is running out, you don’t have a second, you don’t know when it stops, you’ll regret not having been fast enough anyway,” he had warned him.
For Catherine Vautrin, things are likely to go even faster as there are so many files to manage. Number three in the government in the protocol order, she inherited a ministry with an immense scope. Excessive, some will say: Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity. Especially when it was necessary to run it alone for a month, awaiting the late appointment, Thursday February 8, of two delegate ministers, Frédéric Valletoux, in charge of health, and Fadila Khattabi, in charge of the elderly and disabled people. .
In May 2022, France discovers the name of the President of Greater Reims, former Secretary of State for Integration, then for the elderly, and Minister for Social Cohesion between 2004 and 2007. Barely re-elected President of the Republic , Emmanuel Macron sets his sights on this defector from the Les Républicains (LR) party to become his third prime minister from the right, after Edouard Philippe and Jean Castex.
The former MP for Marne is received at the Elysée, reflects on the composition of her government and calls her mother to inform her of the good news. But the head of state ends up giving in to pressure from the historic Macronists, headwinds against this right-wing woman whose positions are considered too conservative. Her hostility to marriage for all in 2013 is highlighted, and too bad if she has changed her mind on the subject since then and says she had the pleasure of marrying couples of the same sex. Elisabeth Borne is preferred, with the support of Alexis Kohler, the influential secretary general of the Elysée.
Territorial anchoring
“His entry into government is not a catch-up, but it is a choice which marks consistency”, we know in the president’s entourage. A decision by Emmanuel Macron before being that of his Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal. A way for the president to confirm his first intuition, while the link has never been broken since 2022. With this local elected official, the majority does not buy a brand, unlike Rachida Dati, minister of culture and former comrade from the UMP-LR years. In a Macronie accused of Parisianism, Catherine Vautrin embodies territorial anchoring.
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