Laura Laplaud with AFP
modified to
09:10, August 14, 2023
Does Gérald Darmanin plan to be a candidate in 2027? The Minister of the Interior came out of the woods on Sunday for the next presidential election, painting the portrait of the candidate capable in his eyes of winning this election, to ultimately portray himself.
In confidences to Figaro, before his trip to Polynesia until the end of next week, the Minister of the Interior sets the tone for “his political return” scheduled for August 27 in his stronghold of Tourcoing in the North, focused on “the working classes ” neglected, according to him, by the political parties. “What interests me is no longer to look at what happened in 2017 and 2022. What worries me now is what will happen in 2027”, says Gérald Darmanin daily .
“If I had his balance sheet, I would make myself a little small”
“Having such ambitions when you have such a record is all the same particularly surprising. […] I call him the minister of fiascos”, declares Edwige Diaz, deputy of Gironde and vice-president of the National Rally, guest of Europe 1 Morning on Monday. “It is the fiasco in terms of the expulsion of Imam Iquioussen, it’s the evaporation of migrants from the Ocean Viking, it’s the fiasco of the Stade de France, it’s the explosion of immigration, it’s the non-execution of the majority of OQTFs and it’s is recently a legal snub regarding the Earth Uprisings case,” she said.
“If I had his balance sheet, I would make myself a little small”, continues the RN deputy, judging it indecent to think of her personal career when the French “suffer the crises of public services, purchasing power, security, immigration”. “Thinking about his personal career in this context, I find it quite uncomfortable,” she says.
For his part, the tenant of Place Beauvau, who campaigned in vain to replace Élisabeth Borne in Matignon in July, considers that “if the answer of the next presidential candidate (of the majority) is to rely on the case law and international markets, then he will state that the political will is only with the extremes”. “We will lose the election and Marine Le Pen will be elected”, he explains in the columns of the Figaro.
“We should not put our future in the hands of technology and technicians by using words that the French do not always understand. We must speak from the heart, not with statistics”, he continues. exhausting those who in his eyes represent the government “the bobo-liberal left”.
Being a minister under Macron, a “personal springboard”?
Edwige Diaz deplores “this little music which would consist in making people believe that ultimately, being a minister under Macronie is only a personal springboard”. It is true that some ministers, like Gabriel Attal, have seen their careers take off in a few years. The latter having gone from spokesperson for La République en Marche to Minister of National Education and Youth in five years.
The appointment of Thomas Cazenave, Minister Delegate for Public Accounts of France, last month, was also considered “a launching pad for the municipal elections in Bordeaux”, says the vice-president of the National Rally. “A few days ago, we [aussi] understood that there was a rivalry between Clément Beaune, Minister of Transport, and Gabriel Attal, new Minister of National Education for the nomination for the municipal elections in Paris. I say to these ministers: you have four years left, in this capacity, the French are entitled to expect that you take care of them and that you leave your personal ambitions aside.” According to Edwige Diaz, the vote “Marine Le Pen” in 2027 will make it possible to draw a line under the “harmful policies carried out by all macronists”.
In the presidential battle, the bonds of friendship no longer have their place
Gérald Darmanin, who has the ambition to unite the right and to be able to beat Marine Le Pen, faces strong competition. Less than three years before the deadline, the political class is already bubbling, Emmanuel Macron cannot be a candidate for his succession. On the right, Bruno the Mayor, Edouard Philippe, Xavier Bertrand or Laurent Wauquiez are regularly cited as being tempted. In this battle, the bonds of friendship no longer have their place. This is how Xavier Bertrand, president of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, to which Gérald Darmanin was close, was neither informed nor invited on August 27, according to a regional source.