The new novel by Gilles Boyer, MEP and closest adviser to Édouard Philippe, sheds light on the relationship between the two men.
It seems that Édouard Philippe had a little heartbreak when he closed “La nuit russe”. Gilles Boyer, the absolute faithful, accomplice in his political and literary journey, co-author of three books – the last of which on their experience at Matignon, sold 80,000 copies – wrote, alone, under the cover of a spy novel , their story. Released in bookstores on May 4, while the duettists were struggling to negotiate 58 constituencies with Macron for their Horizons party.
Of the impossible friendship in politics, thus could be subtitled the work. Gilles Boyer calmly denies it, worried brow, eclipsed smile, in a brasserie in Strasbourg where he makes an appointment, before heading to the European Parliament. “It’s fiction,” recalls the Renaissance MEP. Fine, but the main character, Stan, a “silent, introverted, rigorous” jurist, seems to be a copy of himself. And what about Hugo, the joyful enarque who “infected him with politics”, this great voracious who became Minister of Defense, Prime Minister by chance, resolved to conquer the Elysée? “They seemed to complete each other in everything, writes Boyer, like two pieces of a puzzle.” Life and politics intertwined non-stop, at the time of the first emotions and prostate worries, promise – not kept – to protect women and children, to always support each other, to avoid traps such as “money and ass … the two things that can make politicians lose their footing”.
Of the impossible friendship in politics, thus could be subtitled the work
The friend serves, devoted, adviser in everything, authorized secret-defense, until finding himself trapped by a true-false kompromat which subjects him to the spies of the Kremlin charged with blocking the sales of defensive weapons to Ukraine. The plot, built before the Poutinian war, nourished by Boyer’s passages in Brienne and Matignon, leaps from an efficient and sober pen, without special effects. The traitor is not the good one, the minister, not so white. And the dark friendship, eaten away by the mixing of genres, the things left unsaid, the lies. “The personal dimension was withering away every day. Stan no longer knew what was sincere friendship or Machiavellian calculation…”
So, when the minister who speaks only “by ellipsis” of his supreme ambitions says to him “I would like you to think about… everything that would have to be done to make it feasible if we decide to do so”, the janissary finally dares : “If you decide, you mean…” Devotion has its limits, he will end up in the last pages resigning, exiled to the green in his guest house. Subliminal message? Does Gilles Boyer no longer intend to accompany his friend to the Élysée? “Politics, for better or for worse, is my whole life. I will never stop helping Édouard, but I know that another existence is possible…” He is just like his hero: “A junkie who thinks he is weaned.”
“The Russian Night”, by Gilles Boyer, ed.JC Lattès, 324pages, 20.90 euros.