“I don’t want ministers who administer, I want ministers who act. I don’t want managers, I want revolutionaries,” insisted Emmanuel Macron, according to participants.
The head of state also asked for “results”, “solidarity and speed”, according to a participant. And audacity, a word that has come up repeatedly at the Élysée and Matignon since the appointment of Gabriel Attal.
Macron will bring together majority parliamentarians on Monday in the presence of the government
Emmanuel Macron also sought to bring into line all those who would be tempted to challenge the authority of the Prime Minister, who at 34 years old is the youngest in the Fifth Republic. “This government will be one of republican discipline. I don’t want qualms, I want records of service,” he said bluntly.
After the appointment of a new government team, the head of state “will receive the parliamentarians of the majority and those who support it in the presence of the Prime Minister and the government” on Monday, indicated the Élysée.
And he will continue his “meeting with the Nation” on Tuesday by giving a press conference, according to sources within the executive. The Attal team’s first Council of Ministers lasted barely 30 minutes, the new “government pack” having just had time to settle in after its appointment the previous evening. “The government united, at work!”, launched President Emmanuel Macron at the start of the meeting in front of the cameras.
“Tirelessly”
As if to better hammer home this new slogan – “work, work, work” – the Council of Ministers is now held in the Green Room, much smaller than that of the Ambassadors, which is also the president’s working room.
After the priority given to security on Wednesday, Gabriel Attal hammered home the importance of school during a trip to a college in Yvelines with his successor in Education, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who also remained Minister of Sports and of the Olympic Games.
“We will continue to act tirelessly for the school of the Republic”, he launched, saluting a “fighting” minister, a “champion who will help our school win”, while the unions are worried about the place that Education will take among the large number of projects entrusted to Ms. Oudéa-Castéra.
At the same time, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, suspected among others of submitting against his will to the authority of Gabriel Attal, reaffirmed the importance of his mission six months before the “biggest world event”, the Paris Olympics.
14 ministers around Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal
“With the Prime Minister, with the President, we will work for the success of our country,” he repeated, emphasizing his link with the Head of State, of whom he has been minister for “almost seven years “.
There were 14 of them around Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal at the Élysée for this first meeting. Secretaries of State and other delegated ministers must still be appointed “fewer than ten”, it was specified. Agnès Pannier-Runacher could notably be transferred from Energy Transition to Health.
Big surprise of this new government, Rachida Dati, former Minister of Justice of Nicolas Sarkozy and figure of the Republicans (LR), and now in charge of Culture, immediately attracted the spotlight. “Everyone knows that I like to fight (…) don’t be afraid,” said the new minister when she took office, keen to reassure the world of culture.
“Political coups”
“The advent of Europe will be my priority,” declared Stéphane Séjourné who, at 38, became the youngest Minister of Foreign Affairs, before immediately heading to Kiev.
Another recruit from the right: Catherine Vautrin who inherits a large social ministry (Labor, Health, Solidarity). She paid tribute to Simone Veil at a time when “her founding text” legalizing voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) must be “engraved in the stone of our Constitution”.
The former minister of Jacques Chirac had joined Emmanuel Macron in 2022, but saw Matignon escape at the last minute in favor of Elisabeth Borne, after an internal rebellion from the main executives of the majority. While waiting for the rest of the government, a majority of its members come from the right.
“Political moves in the service of an increasingly right-wing policy,” denounced LFI deputy Eric Coquerel on France 2, while RN vice-president Sébastien Chenu pointed out on franceinfo the “double supervision in which Gabriel will evolve Attal”, between President Macron and his predecessor “Nicolas Sarkozy who placed his cronies”.