In the event of defeat and as recalled by Emmanuel Macron, the members of the government will leave their functions.
THEY ARE GOING TO ROW It is difficult to understand why the Head of State and Élisabeth Borne chose to appoint Justine Benin à la Mer. In his constituency of Guadeloupe, Macron came third in the first round, at 14.6% against 52.6% for Mélenchon and 19.3% for Le Pen, who obtained more than two out of three votes in the second. round. The victory of Justine Benin, elected in 2017 under the label “various left” before joining the MoDem, seems all the more improbable as she has just been pinned by Mediapart for “clientelist drift”.
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Ex-LR who joined the majority to be appointed to the government, in charge of Solidarity and Autonomy, Damien Abad elected since 2012 and well established, risks paying for his “treason” (an LR candidate has been nominated against him) and suffering from accusations of rape, which he denies.
But the tightest duels should take place between walkers and representatives of Nupes. As in Paris, where Clément Beaune faces Caroline Mecary (see box), or in the 6th district of Essonne, where Amelie de Montchalin promoted to Minister for the Ecological Transition, finds herself facing the socialist Jérôme Guedj, whom she had beaten in 2017 and who could take revenge.
THIS SHOULD HAPPEN Marine Le Pen certainly won the match on April 24 in this 6th constituency of Pas-de-Calais with her 57.7% of the vote (against 42.3% for Macron), but Brigitte Bourguignon can hope to stay in her post in health: in June 2021, she was easily re-elected against the RN.
Frank Riester, in Foreign Trade, deputy since 2007, also fears the far right. In her town of Coulommiers, representative of the vote in the 5th constituency of Seine-et-Marne, Marine Le Pen still came out on top in the first round of the presidential election.
The Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussoptre-elected in 2017 in Ardèche against an LREM candidate, could be eliminated in the event of a triangular vote, an unlikely hypothesis due to an abstention which could be record.
THEY LEAVE FAVORITES The Ministry of the Interior, which will announce the final results, should not see its new boss leave, Gerald Darmanin, acclaimed in the first round of municipal elections in Tourcoing in 2020 and who won in 2012 in this 10th constituency in the North. In private, he regrets that Emmanuel Macron recalled that a beaten minister is leaving the government: “That makes them targets,” he confides.
Gabriel Attal, to the Public Accounts, will escape this fate. In the 10th district of Hauts-de-Seine, where Macron won 38.8% of the vote on April 10, he is the only one of the fifteen ministers to face neither LR candidate nor center-right candidate. He could be the best elected of the teamElisabeth Borne, which presents itself in the 6th of Calvados. Unless the government spokesperson, Olivia Gregoire (12th of Paris), or the Minister of Overseas, Yael Braun-Pivet (Yvelines), won this prize.
For Marc Fesneau (Loir-et-Cher), Olivier Véran (Isère) and Stanislas Guerini (Paris), the battle looks tighter. If one of them fails, he can always console himself by telling himself that he suffered the same fate as Alain Juppé in 2007, returned after a short month to the Ministry of Ecology…
THE RISKY BET OF CLÉMENT BEAUNE “I did not choose an easy constituency”, admits the Minister Delegate in charge of Europe. At 40, Clément Beaune is a candidate for the first time in an election (the 7th district of Paris). An Ifop poll for the “JDD” gives him 5 points behind in the first round behind Caroline Mecary (Nupes), and narrowly defeated in the second.
The person concerned is convinced that a fringe of left-wing voters “are tired of the brutal speech of the rebellious leader and his show ‘Elect me Prime Minister'”. This June 3 on the Popincourt market, he tows with a smile despite the refusals and the criticisms. “If you want to come and yell at us in a public meeting, it’s possible”, he says, highlighting his “social-democratic” fiber and assuring that he too does not “agree to 100% with Macron”.
Her adversary is identified, in this territory where the gay community is important, as a lawyer and activist for the rights of LGBT people. “No one has a monopoly,” replies Beaune, who promises to commit to Paris “for a long time”. He describes an “aggressive” candidate who would be “a hard version of Mélenchon”. The person concerned recalls that she was approached by the parliament of the People’s Union and that she was asked to represent this constituency in January. She tackles “a candidate minister who, if elected, will never sit in the Assembly”